2025 would be so much better if we stopped taxing employment. Reduce the NI at the earliest opportunity so barriers to getting into work are reduced.
Match the reduction in tax take due to reducing NI by substantially increasing NLW. Stop subsiding employers with in-work benefits. Work either pays or it doesn't. Get rid of these zombie companies that only exist by suckling on the tax payers teat.
If I was COE I would increase the basic rate of tax to 25%, abolish NI and increase the tax allowance to £15,000
I would reduce corporation tax to 20%, and add additional council tax bands
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
The current Danish coalition of Social Democrats, Liberals and Moderates trail the opposition parties by nearly 30 points in the current polls ahead of the election this November.
The leading opposition parties are the Green Left and Liberal Alliance so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out next year.
Are you sure?
Polling shows the Danish SD in the lead as of December 15, 2024
I’m sure the governing coalition led by the Social Democrats is 30 points behind the total of the opposition parties.
Yes, the Social Democrats lead - albeit seven points down on the last election. They are considered a “red” party and the red parties lead the more liberal and conservative parties 51-43 so they could stay in Government and Frederiksen could remain Prime Minister but the other “red” parties will likely demand changes to the current policies as a price for supporting any new coalition.
So, you’re talking a load of bollocks then. Glad that’s sorted
I didn't think where Tommy Ten Names resides these days one was allowed dangerous objects like sharp implements, narcotics, shoe laces and mobile phones. Perhaps his "team" operate via telepathy but surely a functioning brain is required for that to operate properly. Perhaps the message was corrupted in the ether.
So, the screenshot indication there is that Tommy Robinson was an X follower of the perpetrator.
Last night, some “reporting” here said the Xmas market attacker was a jihadist and that 11 people were dead. This morning, it appears that 2 people have died and the attacker was an ex-Muslim, anti-Islam campaigner who supported the AfD.
The events in Magdeburg are horrific. It is a small comfort that they are not as bad as some reports. We again see why we should be cautious about rushing to conclusions.
And it turns out I'm not the only one who thought there was something a bit odd about the video doing the rounds (if you slow it down to 0.5x speed it looks more normal, so whoever uploaded it to twitter was playing games). Even still, the car is doing some speed and we know chance of pedestrian survival drops rapidly at even just 40mph.
The level of abuse and false representation I got for pointing this out was pretty miserable, for what was ultimately quite a minor point. I was accused of denying the terrorist attack even happened.
I think PB is at it's best when people are allowed to cast a critical eye at things without being hounded off the site.
Also, @Big_G_NorthWales , you suggested that my comments were "unnecessary conjecture" and accused me of speculation.
That was a perverse interpretation of someone just trying to verify some of the lurid rumours and videos going round the internet. If it wasn't for people actually digging into this stuff, we'd all still think it was a jihadist and 11 people were dead.
I remain of the opinion that your comments were unnecessary
As for motive that is to be determined and I have no opinion on that
Why unnecessary? That would be an extremely high bar for PB posts. People write essays on roundabouts on here.
When your children are talking about their forthcoming retirement…..
Can be fun though. You can start giving advice again!
Excellent and I hope the same happens to me, but as I didn't have children until I was 41 and 46 I will be chuffed if that happens.
I was just 30 when our third, and youngest, child was born, and our daughter married a classmate of her one year older brother. Both our sons went down your path, though, so we have two grandchildren in their mid-thirties, and well settled in careers, but now we've moved back to Uni and teenage issues!
The rivers of shit is what will define a good or bad year for many of us. It’s indicative of civilisation.
I’ve a nasty feeling that Sir Kier is going to fail. He’s metropolitan, not much clue about those of us that live in places with a river that matters to us.
And it’s not just synecdoche, green space assists us to manage our mental stresses.
The cheap power revolution could work out but the energy market reform required for individuals to see almost free power will be beyond the competence of Labour.
It’s frustrating. They have the power and the political capital but they are frittering it.
Another thing. The two child cap. We need workers. We need generosity, and long term thinking.
I think what could have been a good year is going to be mediocre.
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
Good morning
And our youngest - where has the last 50 year's gone ?
Have a wonderful year
I was talking to a girl in Seville who spoke English with a rather beautiful accent. She told me she'd spent a year working in Llandudno!
We spend a lot of time bemoaning the catastrophy of Brexit on young people no longer being able to travel and work freely in 28 countries but we forget about their young people travelling the other way.
In Seville their country of choice is now Ireland but what a waste of one of our few great natural advantages A country where people want to come to work to learn English and the name is in the title.
In 2025/26 if Starmer reverses Brexit he will be forgiven everything.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once.
Nearly finished a week of doing my taxes. Just a couple of hours needed now, after Christmas
What gets me REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY QUITE RESENTFUL is the fact that: if I am a day late filing my returns, I get INSTANTLY fined. But HMRC, all working from home, are now taking A YEAR to process Tax Exemption forms, despite multiple calls, and feeble promises, thereby costing me serious money
Utter state of this country
I'm not joking. A YEAR. AT LEAST
To process one form
Bureacracies tend to be more concerned with adherence to their own rules by others than their own compliance with standards, rules, or the law.
It's making me quite irritable. I spoke to my Knapping Foreign Tax Accountant today, and she said the only tax authority in the world that is as fucked up as the UK's is....Germany's
And it just so happens that my much-needed tax form is for exemption from tax by.... Germany
She said "the whole thing could take easily two years, or more"
I've already waited one year for the UK - AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T DELIVERED - and even when I get the form, perhaps when I am dead, I have to wait at least another year for the fucking krauts to be as shite as the British
It is emblematic of the two sick men of Europe. Germany and the UK
We sent a form to reclaim some German VAT (MwSt) (Well our German accountants did) a few weeks back. I reckon it'll be at least a couple of years we're out of pocket (If we're lucky) on it
Fucking maddening. I reckon HMRC's pitiful chaos - along with that of Germany's - is costing me thousands. Maybe tens of thousands if for some reason I keel over in the interim
WTF am I meant to do? My government no longer serves its purpose, it cannot run an efficient state. And yet when I vote for the other lot, they are just as bad, indeed significantly worse
For this reason alone I will vote Reform, to terrify the shit out of ALL the Establishment. I want them frightened for their jobs and I want half of them sacked
still waiting for a refund from HMRC from April - all it says is "pending" -apparently referred to a special department despite them accepting evidence of the pension contributions that caused the refund. Can you get to talk to that department -nah of course not - the only conversation you will have (after about 30 minutes of infuriating nannying messages about finding out online any query ) is with yourself saying "Fing hell" when it then cuts you off
They're all at home. When I call them I can literally hear their fucking pets and kids kicking off, and then they say "Oh I can't find the file, let me get back to you in a few days"
Well maybe you can't find it because you are sitting on your obese butt in your fucking house in Newent, you pathetic lazy bint
I have honestly had HMRC twats say to me, "We understand we have failed you, we are now expediting your case"
EXPEDITING
And then - nothing. She goes and has another biscuit. If I ran my life like this I'd be out of work in weeks
It is utterly pathetic. Get them back in the office and halve their pay with the threat of instant dismissal and replacement by a keen, eager, articulate robot
I don't get the antipathy to working from home that many on the Right have. My wife works from home full time as a commercial lawyer for a major healthcare company, and works her arse off - often late into the night; when I work from home (2 days a week) I am at my desk dawn to dusk.
Don't ascribe to bad management or a bad company/corporate culture the location of where someone is working.
If they fuck about at home they'd fuck about in the office.
The two non-charitable explanations are that the it's the age gradient (the right are now basically the retired and they don't want to think that the generation below them can do things better than they did), vested interests (newspapers and commercial property, because it's easier to make money by seeking rents than actually doing stuff), and management who (they have to believe they are doing something useful for their money).
But neither of those explanations feels especially kind.
Yes, there's training and networking, but neither of those requires everyone in every, or even most, days.
And the bottom line seems trivial. Reducing office space saves businesses a lot of money, even if you allow for properly equipping staff. And not commuting saves staff time, significantly increasing their happiness.
No, it’s because HMRC is demonstrably shit and I’ve heard from several sources that a primary reason is “Working From Home” - this includes a senior manager at HMRC
I think it’s something to do with HMRC still relying on paperwork, whereas many (most?) organisations are entirely digital. If you need instant access to documents, being “at home” is a problem
I’m sure WFH is fine for many companies, and a boon for some employees (tho I lament its effects on city life and socialisation for young people). HMRC is an example of how it can go wrong
Given how much HMRC have gone towards discouraging paperwork, that doesn't sem convincing at all.
I believe that what they do with paperwork is scan it into the computer as soon as it comes in. There are details of the form that point strongly to that.
So paperwork is not a convincing explanation - in fact it damages your theory.
But we are probably getting somewhere.
Government is discouraging paperwork- because for most situations that is what "cheaper and better" looks like. Efficiency, tax cuts, happy days.
In this particular unusual case, that doesn't work, but the state has taken the benefits of computerisation to save money- because that's what the public wants.
(See also self checkouts in supermarkets.)
WFH is a convenient excuse, I'm sure I would use it if pressured. But that doesn't mean it's true.
Also see the points made passim about staffing recruitment and retention. Doesn't matter if some of your tax has to be dealt with by sending out a paper form as (a) the computers do that all anyway most of the time and (b) it's the overall work burden that counts.
I have a suspicion that the HMRC has its own equivalent of the NHS flu crisis every December/January because that's the logical consequence of insisting on 100% efficiency all year round. And that the equivalent of being sensible and getting vaccinated (for the elderly anyway) is getting your return in early and helping HMRC instead of puttin g it in at the last minute at this time of year. Tax inspectors are human and do have holidays and winter illnesses.
Of coruse, also, it's *forbidden* to put in a paper return after 30 October. And even getting signed up for a paper return is more and more difficult.
2025 would be so much better if we stopped taxing employment. Reduce the NI at the earliest opportunity so barriers to getting into work are reduced.
Match the reduction in tax take due to reducing NI by substantially increasing NLW. Stop subsiding employers with in-work benefits. Work either pays or it doesn't. Get rid of these zombie companies that only exist by suckling on the tax payers teat.
If I was COE I would increase the basic rate of tax to 25%, abolish NI and increase the tax allowance to £15,000
I would reduce corporation tax to 20%, and add additional council tax bands
Also increase fuel duty
I'd agree with much of that, but I'd reduce VAT to 17.5% and leave corporation tax where it is. I'd certainly increase council tax bands, though.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
Last night, some “reporting” here said the Xmas market attacker was a jihadist and that 11 people were dead. This morning, it appears that 2 people have died and the attacker was an ex-Muslim, anti-Islam campaigner who supported the AfD.
The events in Magdeburg are horrific. It is a small comfort that they are not as bad as some reports. We again see why we should be cautious about rushing to conclusions.
And it turns out I'm not the only one who thought there was something a bit odd about the video doing the rounds (if you slow it down to 0.5x speed it looks more normal, so whoever uploaded it to twitter was playing games). Even still, the car is doing some speed and we know chance of pedestrian survival drops rapidly at even just 40mph.
The level of abuse and false representation I got for pointing this out was pretty miserable, for what was ultimately quite a minor point. I was accused of denying the terrorist attack even happened.
I think PB is at it's best when people are allowed to cast a critical eye at things without being hounded off the site.
Also, @Big_G_NorthWales , you suggested that my comments were "unnecessary conjecture" and accused me of speculation.
That was a perverse interpretation of someone just trying to verify some of the lurid rumours and videos going round the internet. If it wasn't for people actually digging into this stuff, we'd all still think it was a jihadist and 11 people were dead.
I remain of the opinion that your comments were unnecessary
As for motive that is to be determined and I have no opinion on that
Why unnecessary?
At the time it was an ongoing report of a heinous crime with a speeding car mowing down innocent people at a Christmas market
Indeed shortly after you questioning the speed of the vehicle and even location of the recording, it was announced a small child had died
It may be the film was speeded up, but in my view the horror of the unfolding event made your comments unnecessary
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
I'm 51, and started doing sprint triathlons this year. I'm finding I'm speeding up. Though that speed-up is relative, and I've always been a tortoise.
Mrs j bought me a book about a guy who did an Ironman triathlon (eight times the distance of a sprint). My son turned to her and said: "Mum, you're an enabler!"
Well, I did make a fair whack on the UK GE but Mystic Meg I was not.
Only thing I'll claim is that I was saying Starmer would be a one-term PM even before the election, and was much pilloried for it.
You got the Epsom and Ewell bet at 14-1. That was inspired. As it happened I had a little bit of inside info regarding this and knew the level of targeting involved. Although I didn't expect us to win it, 14-1 were very good odds so well spotted.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
So, on 2nd January I made a series of predictions of things that definitely wouldn't happen. Let's see how I did:
1) Vladimir Putin will come up with a new policy on the Ukraine war which involves withdrawal of all Russian troops and not killing people. 2) The Supreme Court will rule 8-0 that Donald Trump as a mad dangerous fascist who has tried to overthrow the government of the United States is ineligible to be president under the 14th amendment. 3) Clarence Thomas will honourably recuse himself from every case involving Donald Trump. 4) The republican nominee will be somebody sane and the democratic nominee will be somebody aged below 107. The winner will be decided by an arm wrestle rather than all that boring and outdated nonsense with the Electoral College so the Russians/Republicans can’t rig the vote. 5) Rishi Sunak will call an election at an opportune moment. 6) Inspired however by the enthusiastic endorsement of @bigJohnowls, Keir Starmer will win an overall majority of around 250. 7) Despite their shattering defeat, the Tories see sense and elect Penny Mordaunt as their new leader rather than a complete nut case (the complete nut case in question being Suella Braverman) 8) Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes will resign. The England cricket team led by Zak Crawley will win every single test plus a one day international against a scratch team from Outer Mongolia. 9) Lancashire will have their finest ever year in the championship inspired by their new coach Dale Benkenstein. And finally, just in case you thought I was serious: 10) @Leon will be proved right about something.
1) Correct 2) Correct 3) Correct 4) Partially correct. The Democrat turned out to be 60 rather than 107, otherwise bang on. 5) Correct 6) Rather less correct than is healthy given the voteshare, but I was right about Chesterfield's finest, at least sofa. 7) Partially correct. It wasn't Braverman, but... 8) Correct (in fact, worse than correct as McCullum has taken over the white ball side too). 9) Correct. And I would just like to thank Lancashire for relieving Gloucestershire of the incubus that was Dale Benkenstein. 10) Well...enough said.
Aside from everything else (where I am also right), 2024 was the year when my prediction “Biden is gaga, and this is a slow brewing disaster for the Democrats” turned out to be horribly correct
Here is an interesting paradox.
By saying you were right about everything, having been wrong about many things, you are wrong, and therefore demonstrably wrong in your claim to be right about everything.
Bertrand Russell could explain this to you in more detail.
Turns out the narrative is altogether more complex. In fact, his views (if, fortunately for you, not his actions) seem closely aligned with yours on the subject of Islam.
For you and @kjh - here is my conclusive statement from last night. If it gets me banned, so be it. This is what I firmly believe. Btw we somehow got onto Elon Musk, hence the weird context
“[Musk] is - to quote a very wise PBer (I forget who) a "visionary". THAT is his ability, plus an intense work ethic and some wildly good STEM skills
He can imagine and extrapolate. And he is correctly extrapolating that Europe is clearly headed for Far Right governments that won't just restrain immigration, they will literally deport millions. And eventually with force. And the Med and the Channel will be defended with guns which will actually shoot. It is inevitable.... if things proceed as they do - ie left or fake left governments pretending everything is OK and locking up anyone who disagrees
BUT I differ with Musk on the cure. Denmark shows there is a different and better route than the AfD. You have to admit the migration problem, be honest with the data (crime and rape ARE an issue) but then you can forcefully assimilate while offering generous welfare to those willing to stay and accept western liberal feminist norms, on those grounds. But at the same time you have to bulldoze ghettoes and kick out those who won't accept this. No burqas, no niqabs, no minarets, no call to prayer, Europe is not Islamic”
Even if you were correct, that has under the circumstances no relevance to the killer, your comment on the killer, or my comment on your comment.
Does UCL not teach logic? If so I can understand why you laughed at Bertrand Russell even if he was strange enough to think ontology was valid.
I didn't think where Tommy Ten Names resides these days one was allowed dangerous objects like sharp implements, narcotics, shoe laces and mobile phones. Perhaps his "team" operate via telepathy but surely a functioning brain is required for that to operate properly. Perhaps the message was corrupted in the ether.
So, the screenshot indication there is that Tommy Robinson was an X follower of the perpetrator.
My point was more on the lines of how does Steven even access his X account?
2025 would be so much better if we stopped taxing employment. Reduce the NI at the earliest opportunity so barriers to getting into work are reduced.
Match the reduction in tax take due to reducing NI by substantially increasing NLW. Stop subsiding employers with in-work benefits. Work either pays or it doesn't. Get rid of these zombie companies that only exist by suckling on the tax payers teat.
If I was COE I would increase the basic rate of tax to 25%, abolish NI and increase the tax allowance to £15,000
I would reduce corporation tax to 20%, and add additional council tax bands
Also increase fuel duty
I'd agree with much of that, but I'd reduce VAT to 17.5% and leave corporation tax where it is. I'd certainly increase council tax bands, though.
Lowering VAT to increase Corp tax makes no sense.
VAT cannot be clawed back by companies incurring a loss in subsequent years, for example.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
The haters who associate with Reform clearly want misery and despair to spread their brand of hate and evil.
Hopefully those across the reasonable and decent spectrum from mainstream left to mainstream right will persuade enough of the intellectually challenged not to find a haven in the politics of hate.
If Braverman and Jenrick move to Reform then the Tory Right that's left becomes far more palatable.
If Corbyn takes his dozen or so nutters to join Galloway then Starmers purge is complete.
The mainstream then from left to right, whilst we may disagree passionately can unite to fight Musk and his global uber right consortium that threatens ALL western democracies.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
Good morning
And our youngest - where has the last 50 year's gone ?
Have a wonderful year
I was talking to a girl in Seville who spoke English with a rather beautiful accent. She told me she'd spent a year working in Llandudno!
We spend a lot of time bemoaning the catastrophy of Brexit on young people no longer being able to travel and work freely in 28 countries but we forget about their young people travelling the other way.
In Seville their country of choice is now Ireland but what a waste of one of our few great natural advantages A country where people want to come to work to learn English and the name is in the title.
In 2025/26 if Starmer reverses Brexit he will be forgiven everything.
I am sorry @Roger but you seem to have ignored my previous post where I said my granddaughter, studying Italian language and culture at Leeds University, spent all last year at Turin University together with other Leeds students as part of her BA
Everyone knows you mourn the EU but short of a manifesto commitment to re-join or another referendum it is not happening and neither of those are going to happen before GE 2029
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
2024 has been a significant year for us; but I am very pessimistic for 2025, economically.
I expect the Trump tariffs and govt ineptitude to push us into proper recession. Only upside is the govt spending slashes that will have to come from it - either from Labour (unlikely), eventual winners of the next election (possible) or imposed by the IMF post bailout (also a possibility) are a year closer!
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
Nearly finished a week of doing my taxes. Just a couple of hours needed now, after Christmas
What gets me REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY QUITE RESENTFUL is the fact that: if I am a day late filing my returns, I get INSTANTLY fined. But HMRC, all working from home, are now taking A YEAR to process Tax Exemption forms, despite multiple calls, and feeble promises, thereby costing me serious money
Utter state of this country
I'm not joking. A YEAR. AT LEAST
To process one form
Bureacracies tend to be more concerned with adherence to their own rules by others than their own compliance with standards, rules, or the law.
It's making me quite irritable. I spoke to my Knapping Foreign Tax Accountant today, and she said the only tax authority in the world that is as fucked up as the UK's is....Germany's
And it just so happens that my much-needed tax form is for exemption from tax by.... Germany
She said "the whole thing could take easily two years, or more"
I've already waited one year for the UK - AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T DELIVERED - and even when I get the form, perhaps when I am dead, I have to wait at least another year for the fucking krauts to be as shite as the British
It is emblematic of the two sick men of Europe. Germany and the UK
We sent a form to reclaim some German VAT (MwSt) (Well our German accountants did) a few weeks back. I reckon it'll be at least a couple of years we're out of pocket (If we're lucky) on it
Fucking maddening. I reckon HMRC's pitiful chaos - along with that of Germany's - is costing me thousands. Maybe tens of thousands if for some reason I keel over in the interim
WTF am I meant to do? My government no longer serves its purpose, it cannot run an efficient state. And yet when I vote for the other lot, they are just as bad, indeed significantly worse
For this reason alone I will vote Reform, to terrify the shit out of ALL the Establishment. I want them frightened for their jobs and I want half of them sacked
still waiting for a refund from HMRC from April - all it says is "pending" -apparently referred to a special department despite them accepting evidence of the pension contributions that caused the refund. Can you get to talk to that department -nah of course not - the only conversation you will have (after about 30 minutes of infuriating nannying messages about finding out online any query ) is with yourself saying "Fing hell" when it then cuts you off
They're all at home. When I call them I can literally hear their fucking pets and kids kicking off, and then they say "Oh I can't find the file, let me get back to you in a few days"
Well maybe you can't find it because you are sitting on your obese butt in your fucking house in Newent, you pathetic lazy bint
I have honestly had HMRC twats say to me, "We understand we have failed you, we are now expediting your case"
EXPEDITING
And then - nothing. She goes and has another biscuit. If I ran my life like this I'd be out of work in weeks
It is utterly pathetic. Get them back in the office and halve their pay with the threat of instant dismissal and replacement by a keen, eager, articulate robot
I don't get the antipathy to working from home that many on the Right have. My wife works from home full time as a commercial lawyer for a major healthcare company, and works her arse off - often late into the night; when I work from home (2 days a week) I am at my desk dawn to dusk.
Don't ascribe to bad management or a bad company/corporate culture the location of where someone is working.
If they fuck about at home they'd fuck about in the office.
The two non-charitable explanations are that the it's the age gradient (the right are now basically the retired and they don't want to think that the generation below them can do things better than they did), vested interests (newspapers and commercial property, because it's easier to make money by seeking rents than actually doing stuff), and management who (they have to believe they are doing something useful for their money).
But neither of those explanations feels especially kind.
Yes, there's training and networking, but neither of those requires everyone in every, or even most, days.
And the bottom line seems trivial. Reducing office space saves businesses a lot of money, even if you allow for properly equipping staff. And not commuting saves staff time, significantly increasing their happiness.
No, it’s because HMRC is demonstrably shit and I’ve heard from several sources that a primary reason is “Working From Home” - this includes a senior manager at HMRC
I think it’s something to do with HMRC still relying on paperwork, whereas many (most?) organisations are entirely digital. If you need instant access to documents, being “at home” is a problem
I’m sure WFH is fine for many companies, and a boon for some employees (tho I lament its effects on city life and socialisation for young people). HMRC is an example of how it can go wrong
One thing that is nearly never raised is that an organisation, the work environment and the work methodology need to be setup correctly for home working to… work.
Sending everyone home with a laptop is to home working as Liz Truss is to running the country. It may work by accident, but the evidence is against it.
For example - you are working in software development, with JIRA and Agile, in a paperless office, with Virtual Machines,
You are *already setup* for home working.
- JIRA lists all the tasks. Stuff doesn’t get lost - Agile means there is an estimation of how long these tasks take. So everyone can see, instantly, who is doing what. - Paperless office means all the info is online. - VMs mean that as long as you can login, nothing needs to be on your computer at home. Aside from the remote access app - Citrix, say. So support is centralised.
Even in this case, you have the issue of suitable home office space, team onboarding etc..,
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
Nearly finished a week of doing my taxes. Just a couple of hours needed now, after Christmas
What gets me REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY QUITE RESENTFUL is the fact that: if I am a day late filing my returns, I get INSTANTLY fined. But HMRC, all working from home, are now taking A YEAR to process Tax Exemption forms, despite multiple calls, and feeble promises, thereby costing me serious money
Utter state of this country
I'm not joking. A YEAR. AT LEAST
To process one form
Bureacracies tend to be more concerned with adherence to their own rules by others than their own compliance with standards, rules, or the law.
It's making me quite irritable. I spoke to my Knapping Foreign Tax Accountant today, and she said the only tax authority in the world that is as fucked up as the UK's is....Germany's
And it just so happens that my much-needed tax form is for exemption from tax by.... Germany
She said "the whole thing could take easily two years, or more"
I've already waited one year for the UK - AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T DELIVERED - and even when I get the form, perhaps when I am dead, I have to wait at least another year for the fucking krauts to be as shite as the British
It is emblematic of the two sick men of Europe. Germany and the UK
We sent a form to reclaim some German VAT (MwSt) (Well our German accountants did) a few weeks back. I reckon it'll be at least a couple of years we're out of pocket (If we're lucky) on it
Fucking maddening. I reckon HMRC's pitiful chaos - along with that of Germany's - is costing me thousands. Maybe tens of thousands if for some reason I keel over in the interim
WTF am I meant to do? My government no longer serves its purpose, it cannot run an efficient state. And yet when I vote for the other lot, they are just as bad, indeed significantly worse
For this reason alone I will vote Reform, to terrify the shit out of ALL the Establishment. I want them frightened for their jobs and I want half of them sacked
still waiting for a refund from HMRC from April - all it says is "pending" -apparently referred to a special department despite them accepting evidence of the pension contributions that caused the refund. Can you get to talk to that department -nah of course not - the only conversation you will have (after about 30 minutes of infuriating nannying messages about finding out online any query ) is with yourself saying "Fing hell" when it then cuts you off
They're all at home. When I call them I can literally hear their fucking pets and kids kicking off, and then they say "Oh I can't find the file, let me get back to you in a few days"
Well maybe you can't find it because you are sitting on your obese butt in your fucking house in Newent, you pathetic lazy bint
I have honestly had HMRC twats say to me, "We understand we have failed you, we are now expediting your case"
EXPEDITING
And then - nothing. She goes and has another biscuit. If I ran my life like this I'd be out of work in weeks
It is utterly pathetic. Get them back in the office and halve their pay with the threat of instant dismissal and replacement by a keen, eager, articulate robot
I don't get the antipathy to working from home that many on the Right have. My wife works from home full time as a commercial lawyer for a major healthcare company, and works her arse off - often late into the night; when I work from home (2 days a week) I am at my desk dawn to dusk.
Don't ascribe to bad management or a bad company/corporate culture the location of where someone is working.
If they fuck about at home they'd fuck about in the office.
The two non-charitable explanations are that the it's the age gradient (the right are now basically the retired and they don't want to think that the generation below them can do things better than they did), vested interests (newspapers and commercial property, because it's easier to make money by seeking rents than actually doing stuff), and management who (they have to believe they are doing something useful for their money).
But neither of those explanations feels especially kind.
Yes, there's training and networking, but neither of those requires everyone in every, or even most, days.
And the bottom line seems trivial. Reducing office space saves businesses a lot of money, even if you allow for properly equipping staff. And not commuting saves staff time, significantly increasing their happiness.
No, it’s because HMRC is demonstrably shit and I’ve heard from several sources that a primary reason is “Working From Home” - this includes a senior manager at HMRC
I think it’s something to do with HMRC still relying on paperwork, whereas many (most?) organisations are entirely digital. If you need instant access to documents, being “at home” is a problem
I’m sure WFH is fine for many companies, and a boon for some employees (tho I lament its effects on city life and socialisation for young people). HMRC is an example of how it can go wrong
One thing that is nearly never raised is that an organisation, the work environment and the work methodology need to be setup correctly for home working to… work.
Sending everyone home with a laptop is to home working as Liz Truss is to running the country. It may work by accident, but the evidence is against it.
For example - you are working in software development, with JIRA and Agile, in a paperless office, with Virtual Machines,
You are *already setup* for home working.
- JIRA lists all the tasks. Stuff doesn’t get lost - Agile means there is an estimation of how long these tasks take. So everyone can see, instantly, who is doing what. - Paperless office means all the info is online. - VMs mean that as long as you can login, nothing needs to be on your computer at home. Aside from the remote access app - Citrix, say. So support is centralised.
Even in this case, you have the issue of suitable home office space, team onboarding etc..,
My experience in this field makes me think the key to working, full stop, is having good and capable employees.
The good ones can do all their JIRA tickets from home.
The less good ones manage to not do it properly in the office.
How one turns the latter into the former, without an office environment, is the real tricky part I suspect....
2025 would be so much better if we stopped taxing employment. Reduce the NI at the earliest opportunity so barriers to getting into work are reduced.
Match the reduction in tax take due to reducing NI by substantially increasing NLW. Stop subsiding employers with in-work benefits. Work either pays or it doesn't. Get rid of these zombie companies that only exist by suckling on the tax payers teat.
If I was COE I would increase the basic rate of tax to 25%, abolish NI and increase the tax allowance to £15,000
I would reduce corporation tax to 20%, and add additional council tax bands
Also increase fuel duty
I'd agree with much of that, but I'd reduce VAT to 17.5% and leave corporation tax where it is. I'd certainly increase council tax bands, though.
Lowering VAT to increase Corp tax makes no sense.
VAT cannot be clawed back by companies incurring a loss in subsequent years, for example.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
That's a good recommendation for Bluesky from Nina Power; she'll be nowhere near it. IMO she seems to be quite ... interesting.
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% of the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
She spoke at NatCon 2023 and wrote for the Spectator and the Telegraph, having previously written for the Guardian and The Wire. I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like some kind of metanoia.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
Look mate, I'm not the one who goes on sex tourism junkets like a less talented Gary Glitter.
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
That's a good recommendation for Bluesky from Nina Power; she'll be nowhere near it. IMO she seems to be quite the narcissist.
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
Are you suggesting that a conversation involving Leon might include some gibberish?
How very dare you sir?
Why, you'll be arguing about whether birds are animals or not next.
Nearly finished a week of doing my taxes. Just a couple of hours needed now, after Christmas
What gets me REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY QUITE RESENTFUL is the fact that: if I am a day late filing my returns, I get INSTANTLY fined. But HMRC, all working from home, are now taking A YEAR to process Tax Exemption forms, despite multiple calls, and feeble promises, thereby costing me serious money
Utter state of this country
I'm not joking. A YEAR. AT LEAST
To process one form
Bureacracies tend to be more concerned with adherence to their own rules by others than their own compliance with standards, rules, or the law.
It's making me quite irritable. I spoke to my Knapping Foreign Tax Accountant today, and she said the only tax authority in the world that is as fucked up as the UK's is....Germany's
And it just so happens that my much-needed tax form is for exemption from tax by.... Germany
She said "the whole thing could take easily two years, or more"
I've already waited one year for the UK - AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T DELIVERED - and even when I get the form, perhaps when I am dead, I have to wait at least another year for the fucking krauts to be as shite as the British
It is emblematic of the two sick men of Europe. Germany and the UK
We sent a form to reclaim some German VAT (MwSt) (Well our German accountants did) a few weeks back. I reckon it'll be at least a couple of years we're out of pocket (If we're lucky) on it
Fucking maddening. I reckon HMRC's pitiful chaos - along with that of Germany's - is costing me thousands. Maybe tens of thousands if for some reason I keel over in the interim
WTF am I meant to do? My government no longer serves its purpose, it cannot run an efficient state. And yet when I vote for the other lot, they are just as bad, indeed significantly worse
For this reason alone I will vote Reform, to terrify the shit out of ALL the Establishment. I want them frightened for their jobs and I want half of them sacked
still waiting for a refund from HMRC from April - all it says is "pending" -apparently referred to a special department despite them accepting evidence of the pension contributions that caused the refund. Can you get to talk to that department -nah of course not - the only conversation you will have (after about 30 minutes of infuriating nannying messages about finding out online any query ) is with yourself saying "Fing hell" when it then cuts you off
They're all at home. When I call them I can literally hear their fucking pets and kids kicking off, and then they say "Oh I can't find the file, let me get back to you in a few days"
Well maybe you can't find it because you are sitting on your obese butt in your fucking house in Newent, you pathetic lazy bint
I have honestly had HMRC twats say to me, "We understand we have failed you, we are now expediting your case"
EXPEDITING
And then - nothing. She goes and has another biscuit. If I ran my life like this I'd be out of work in weeks
It is utterly pathetic. Get them back in the office and halve their pay with the threat of instant dismissal and replacement by a keen, eager, articulate robot
I don't get the antipathy to working from home that many on the Right have. My wife works from home full time as a commercial lawyer for a major healthcare company, and works her arse off - often late into the night; when I work from home (2 days a week) I am at my desk dawn to dusk.
Don't ascribe to bad management or a bad company/corporate culture the location of where someone is working.
If they fuck about at home they'd fuck about in the office.
The two non-charitable explanations are that the it's the age gradient (the right are now basically the retired and they don't want to think that the generation below them can do things better than they did), vested interests (newspapers and commercial property, because it's easier to make money by seeking rents than actually doing stuff), and management who (they have to believe they are doing something useful for their money).
But neither of those explanations feels especially kind.
Yes, there's training and networking, but neither of those requires everyone in every, or even most, days.
And the bottom line seems trivial. Reducing office space saves businesses a lot of money, even if you allow for properly equipping staff. And not commuting saves staff time, significantly increasing their happiness.
No, it’s because HMRC is demonstrably shit and I’ve heard from several sources that a primary reason is “Working From Home” - this includes a senior manager at HMRC
I think it’s something to do with HMRC still relying on paperwork, whereas many (most?) organisations are entirely digital. If you need instant access to documents, being “at home” is a problem
I’m sure WFH is fine for many companies, and a boon for some employees (tho I lament its effects on city life and socialisation for young people). HMRC is an example of how it can go wrong
One thing that is nearly never raised is that an organisation, the work environment and the work methodology need to be setup correctly for home working to… work.
Sending everyone home with a laptop is to home working as Liz Truss is to running the country. It may work by accident, but the evidence is against it.
For example - you are working in software development, with JIRA and Agile, in a paperless office, with Virtual Machines,
You are *already setup* for home working.
- JIRA lists all the tasks. Stuff doesn’t get lost - Agile means there is an estimation of how long these tasks take. So everyone can see, instantly, who is doing what. - Paperless office means all the info is online. - VMs mean that as long as you can login, nothing needs to be on your computer at home. Aside from the remote access app - Citrix, say. So support is centralised.
Even in this case, you have the issue of suitable home office space, team onboarding etc..,
My experience in this field makes me think the key to working, full stop, is having good and capable employees.
The good ones can do all their JIRA tickets from home.
The less good ones manage to not do it properly in the office.
How one turns the latter into the former, without an office environment, is the real tricky part I suspect....
Having good employees is a requirement to get good work done.
From descriptions of a number of organisations the employees are “soldiering” - the state described by Frederick Taylor.
That is, they are mechanically doing as little work as is required. They fundamentally dislike the job and have zero personal investment in it.
The cause of this is generally a poor working environment which filters *in* the worst employees - the good ones leave. Because they can.
Organisations in that state can stagger on, with management closely monitoring what people are doing.
Very often, such organisations have no task tracking at an individual level.
So when WFH, such employees, in such an organisation, have no motivation to work and there is little or no way to track if they are doing work.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
That's a good recommendation for Bluesky from Nina Power; she'll be nowhere near it. IMO she seems to be quite the narcissist.
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
No comments on the others on this thread who have private profiles, or is it just a vendetta against @Leon?
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
Are you suggesting that a conversation involving Leon might include some gibberish?
How very dare you sir?
Why, you'll be arguing about whether birds are animals or not next.
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
Looks legit to me. 250,000 followers, a “Saudi political commentator” and appears on BBC, CNN, France24
Also he’s the first person to actually explain how a “refugee doctor” who “hates Islam” ends up mowing down German kids at a Christmas market
Could be wrong but his thesis is plausible. The anti-Islam stuff was a pose to hide basic criminality and prevent him being deported back to Saudi for his rape charges etc
I didn't think where Tommy Ten Names resides these days one was allowed dangerous objects like sharp implements, narcotics, shoe laces and mobile phones. Perhaps his "team" operate via telepathy but surely a functioning brain is required for that to operate properly. Perhaps the message was corrupted in the ether.
So, the screenshot indication there is that Tommy Robinson was an X follower of the perpetrator.
My point was more on the lines of how does Steven even access his X account?
Apparently phones are as common as drugs in the prisons.
It might be entertaining to compare activity on social media with incarceration - how many are Twatting up a storm, while supposedly offline behind bars…
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
Are you suggesting that a conversation involving Leon might include some gibberish?
How very dare you sir?
Why, you'll be arguing about whether birds are animals or not next.
Well actually I wasn't. I was suggesting I was posting gibberish, but if that is what you infer from it I of course won't disagree.
Re birds you do realise every time you post this I have to make a statement that birds ARE animals just in case anyone thinks I think otherwise. I don't need others to suggest I am an idiot. I'm quite capable of demonstrating that myself.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
That's a good recommendation for Bluesky from Nina Power; she'll be nowhere near it. IMO she seems to be quite the narcissist.
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
"Ukrainian forces successfully attacked Russian positions using only ground and first person view (FPV) drones instead of infantry, an army spokesperson claimed on Dec. 20."
If Russia is defeated in Ukraine they will be chased out by a veritable horde of drones. Britain won WWI with technological innovation, and Ukraine can still win this war the same way.
In addition to supporting Ukraine we should, and must, learn all we can about drone warfare in both offensive and defensive terms.
The trouble is there isn't likely to be a set of tactics or training drills that you could call drone warfare. The lesson seems to be: don't stop learning. Innovate or die.
That requires a much more difficult culture shift, in the armed forces and the defence industry.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
My 50s were my best decade. Seriously. Enjoy!
I found turning 50 deeply troubling, for no reason I could put my finger on.
But then, I was convinced I was still 27 until I got to 62, when I had to reassess. "Late middle age" is proving quite a moveable feast.
40 was the birthday I found depressing. The day I stopped being young.
50 was OK, except for becoming eligible for all those "Over 50" insurance plans, etc, that bracket you in with the elderly.
Mind, being older than the parents of some of my work colleagues does make me feel old.
I turned 60 during COVID lockdown, so I feel cheated out of a celebration. I am really going to party when I am 70.
My advice, peering down from the mid 80's, is to take such an opportunity. My experience, and I gather Big G agrees, is that after 80 'things' do start to go wrong!
There are advantages, in that scammers on the 'phone, when trying sell life insurance etc, lose interest when one says one is over 80!
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
That's a good recommendation for Bluesky from Nina Power; she'll be nowhere near it. IMO she seems to be quite the narcissist.
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
I'm on both Bluesky and Twitter, moving away from Twitter.
My preferred analogy is that Twitter has become like the Thames, with the proprietor injecting raw sewage.
That analogy is false. The Thames is getting better, due to the gradual introduction of a multi-year, multi-billion project (Super Sewer) to do just that.
Source - we test the river at my rowing club daily.
"Ukrainian forces successfully attacked Russian positions using only ground and first person view (FPV) drones instead of infantry, an army spokesperson claimed on Dec. 20."
If Russia is defeated in Ukraine they will be chased out by a veritable horde of drones. Britain won WWI with technological innovation, and Ukraine can still win this war the same way.
In addition to supporting Ukraine we should, and must, learn all we can about drone warfare in both offensive and defensive terms.
The trouble is there isn't likely to be a set of tactics or training drills that you could call drone warfare. The lesson seems to be: don't stop learning. Innovate or die.
That requires a much more difficult culture shift, in the armed forces and the defence industry.
Never stop learning. There's always something interesting around the corner!
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
My 50s were my best decade. Seriously. Enjoy!
I found turning 50 deeply troubling, for no reason I could put my finger on.
But then, I was convinced I was still 27 until I got to 62, when I had to reassess. "Late middle age" is proving quite a moveable feast.
40 was the birthday I found depressing. The day I stopped being young.
50 was OK, except for becoming eligible for all those "Over 50" insurance plans, etc, that bracket you in with the elderly.
Mind, being older than the parents of some of my work colleagues does make me feel old.
I turned 60 during COVID lockdown, so I feel cheated out of a celebration. I am really going to party when I am 70.
My advice, peering down from the mid 80's, is to take such an opportunity. My experience, and I gather Big G agrees, is that after 80 'things' do start to go wrong!
There are advantages, in that scammers on the 'phone, when trying sell life insurance etc, lose interest when one says one is over 80!
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
No comments on the others on this thread who have private profiles, or is it just a vendetta against @Leon?
Nope.
Infact when I first raised this it didn't involve @leon at all. It has been discussed many times before and most weren't aware of the fact they were private. I actually get on well with leon so certainly not a vendetta. It was more of a joke initially yesterday being caught out on a trivial point and we have often bantered on stuff like this. You can of course check this because I am not private. The disabled parking bay chat with @leon was really good fun.
It is a serious issue though and sometime ago I did raise it because @moonshine made a couple of obnoxious links (and I do mean seriously obnoxious [it could have been unintentional] and should have been removed) and I called her out on it. She immediately turned her profile private. That is wrong. The right move is to stick by it or retract it.
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
Looks legit to me. 250,000 followers, a “Saudi political commentator” and appears on BBC, CNN, France24
Also he’s the first person to actually explain how a “refugee doctor” who “hates Islam” ends up mowing down German kids at a Christmas market
Could be wrong but his thesis is plausible. The anti-Islam stuff was a pose to hide basic criminality and prevent him being deported back to Saudi for his rape charges etc
It might be. But how much is this 'Saudi political commentator' a voice for his government?
As I said, the Jamal Khashoggi case shows that the Saudi government can be very (ahem) proactive when it comes to people they see as dissidents, and why someone who had upset that government might feel threatened by that government.
(We have absolutely let Saudi Arabia off the hook over the hideous Jamal Khashoggi murder.)
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
Looks legit to me. 250,000 followers, a “Saudi political commentator” and appears on BBC, CNN, France24
Also he’s the first person to actually explain how a “refugee doctor” who “hates Islam” ends up mowing down German kids at a Christmas market
Could be wrong but his thesis is plausible. The anti-Islam stuff was a pose to hide basic criminality and prevent him being deported back to Saudi for his rape charges etc
It might be. But how much is this 'Saudi political commentator' a voice for his government?
As I said, the Jamal Khashoggi case shows that the Saudi government can be very (ahem) proactive when it comes to people they see as dissidents, and why someone who had upset that government might feel threatened by that government.
(We have absolutely let Saudi Arabia off the hook over the hideous Jamal Khashoggi murder.)
I agree on Khashoggi. Horrific
At the same time, the Middle East is such a gruesome disaster zone - Gaza, Syria, Lebanon - the grim and ugly Saudi regime is beginning to look relatively “moderate” and sensible
Few weeks ago I met a journalist whose husband works in Saudi (she visits him). She says it is as boring and depressing as it appears. But it is safe
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
That's a good recommendation for Bluesky from Nina Power; she'll be nowhere near it. IMO she seems to be quite the narcissist.
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
I'm on both Bluesky and Twitter, moving away from Twitter.
My preferred analogy is that Twitter has become like the Thames, with the proprietor injecting raw sewage.
Serious advice. Avoid Bluesky. Bad vibes. Take it or leave it
Twitter has even worse vibes.
I repeatedly see an alliance of islamists and far-rightists posting literally Nazi-era , 1930's antisemitic cartoons, which are not taken down. Extreme anti-semitism is becoming normalised on there, and it even has memes which are seen on subjects which are nothing to do with it. ("Every. Single. Time.", which means these left-wing enemies always turn out to Jewish.)
There are some amusements, though, like broken english islamists from Asia increasingly absorbing the delighting in provocation Trumpist posting-style. "Cry harder, Congress secularists. Modi will serve your ass !".
It is, as Jean-Paul Sartre would have said, incressingly a bath de merde.
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
No comments on the others on this thread who have private profiles, or is it just a vendetta against @Leon?
Nope.
Infact when I first raised this it didn't involve @leon at all. It has been discussed many times before and most weren't aware of the fact they were private. I actually get on well with leon so certainly not a vendetta. It was more of a joke initially yesterday being caught out on a trivial point and we have often bantered on stuff like this. You can of course check this because I am not private. The disabled parking bay chat with @leon was really good fun.
It is a serious issue though and sometime ago I did raise it because @moonshine made a couple of obnoxious links (and I do mean seriously obnoxious [it could have been unintentional] and should have been removed) and I called her out on it. She immediately turned her profile private. That is wrong. The right move is to stick by it or retract it.
And, as has been pointed out, going private does next to nothing. Every post is still there. Google searchable.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
Er, he started it
Besides, it’s just Christmas banter. I’m actually in a benign mood
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
Nearly finished a week of doing my taxes. Just a couple of hours needed now, after Christmas
What gets me REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY QUITE RESENTFUL is the fact that: if I am a day late filing my returns, I get INSTANTLY fined. But HMRC, all working from home, are now taking A YEAR to process Tax Exemption forms, despite multiple calls, and feeble promises, thereby costing me serious money
Utter state of this country
I'm not joking. A YEAR. AT LEAST
To process one form
Bureacracies tend to be more concerned with adherence to their own rules by others than their own compliance with standards, rules, or the law.
It's making me quite irritable. I spoke to my Knapping Foreign Tax Accountant today, and she said the only tax authority in the world that is as fucked up as the UK's is....Germany's
And it just so happens that my much-needed tax form is for exemption from tax by.... Germany
She said "the whole thing could take easily two years, or more"
I've already waited one year for the UK - AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T DELIVERED - and even when I get the form, perhaps when I am dead, I have to wait at least another year for the fucking krauts to be as shite as the British
It is emblematic of the two sick men of Europe. Germany and the UK
We sent a form to reclaim some German VAT (MwSt) (Well our German accountants did) a few weeks back. I reckon it'll be at least a couple of years we're out of pocket (If we're lucky) on it
Fucking maddening. I reckon HMRC's pitiful chaos - along with that of Germany's - is costing me thousands. Maybe tens of thousands if for some reason I keel over in the interim
WTF am I meant to do? My government no longer serves its purpose, it cannot run an efficient state. And yet when I vote for the other lot, they are just as bad, indeed significantly worse
For this reason alone I will vote Reform, to terrify the shit out of ALL the Establishment. I want them frightened for their jobs and I want half of them sacked
still waiting for a refund from HMRC from April - all it says is "pending" -apparently referred to a special department despite them accepting evidence of the pension contributions that caused the refund. Can you get to talk to that department -nah of course not - the only conversation you will have (after about 30 minutes of infuriating nannying messages about finding out online any query ) is with yourself saying "Fing hell" when it then cuts you off
They're all at home. When I call them I can literally hear their fucking pets and kids kicking off, and then they say "Oh I can't find the file, let me get back to you in a few days"
Well maybe you can't find it because you are sitting on your obese butt in your fucking house in Newent, you pathetic lazy bint
I have honestly had HMRC twats say to me, "We understand we have failed you, we are now expediting your case"
EXPEDITING
And then - nothing. She goes and has another biscuit. If I ran my life like this I'd be out of work in weeks
It is utterly pathetic. Get them back in the office and halve their pay with the threat of instant dismissal and replacement by a keen, eager, articulate robot
I don't get the antipathy to working from home that many on the Right have. My wife works from home full time as a commercial lawyer for a major healthcare company, and works her arse off - often late into the night; when I work from home (2 days a week) I am at my desk dawn to dusk.
Don't ascribe to bad management or a bad company/corporate culture the location of where someone is working.
If they fuck about at home they'd fuck about in the office.
The two non-charitable explanations are that the it's the age gradient (the right are now basically the retired and they don't want to think that the generation below them can do things better than they did), vested interests (newspapers and commercial property, because it's easier to make money by seeking rents than actually doing stuff), and management who (they have to believe they are doing something useful for their money).
But neither of those explanations feels especially kind.
Yes, there's training and networking, but neither of those requires everyone in every, or even most, days.
And the bottom line seems trivial. Reducing office space saves businesses a lot of money, even if you allow for properly equipping staff. And not commuting saves staff time, significantly increasing their happiness.
No, it’s because HMRC is demonstrably shit and I’ve heard from several sources that a primary reason is “Working From Home” - this includes a senior manager at HMRC
I think it’s something to do with HMRC still relying on paperwork, whereas many (most?) organisations are entirely digital. If you need instant access to documents, being “at home” is a problem
I’m sure WFH is fine for many companies, and a boon for some employees (tho I lament its effects on city life and socialisation for young people). HMRC is an example of how it can go wrong
Ironically WFH, having killed much London leisure, might now be reviving it. London workers found they were paying half (or more) of their post-tax income just on rent and commuting. Not much left for partying. Now they save their fare money at least, increasingly they can afford to come back into town to enjoy themselves.
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
Looks legit to me. 250,000 followers, a “Saudi political commentator” and appears on BBC, CNN, France24
Also he’s the first person to actually explain how a “refugee doctor” who “hates Islam” ends up mowing down German kids at a Christmas market
Could be wrong but his thesis is plausible. The anti-Islam stuff was a pose to hide basic criminality and prevent him being deported back to Saudi for his rape charges etc
It might be. But how much is this 'Saudi political commentator' a voice for his government?
As I said, the Jamal Khashoggi case shows that the Saudi government can be very (ahem) proactive when it comes to people they see as dissidents, and why someone who had upset that government might feel threatened by that government.
(We have absolutely let Saudi Arabia off the hook over the hideous Jamal Khashoggi murder.)
I agree on Khashoggi. Horrific
At the same time, the Middle East is such a gruesome disaster zone - Gaza, Syria, Lebanon - the grim and ugly Saudi regime is beginning to look relatively “moderate” and sensible
Few weeks ago I met a journalist whose husband works in Saudi (she visits him). She says it is as boring and depressing as it appears. But it is safe
It’s safe in the way that Paraguay was safe under Stroessner. Anyone who vaguely looks like a problem to the authorities winds up in a cell next to the political prisoners.
Of course, that includes anyone who reports the wrong kind of crime.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
My WAG? Gates left open to allow stallholders to gain vehicular access, then someone forgot to close them. The guy then noticed this. Perhaps. I daresay the German police investigation will look into how it happened.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
My WAG? Gates left open to allow stallholders to gain vehicular access, then someone forgot to close them. The guy then noticed this. Perhaps. I daresay the German police investigation will look into how it happened.
If so, then it's a very human failing.
Yep - that's a different category than someone say faking a right to access.
It sounds like the 'loss of attention to detail in public services' (my summary) that I get the impression is perceived to be impacting on quality of the public realm in Germany over the last several years - even basics such as trains running on time.
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
No comments on the others on this thread who have private profiles, or is it just a vendetta against @Leon?
Nope.
Infact when I first raised this it didn't involve @leon at all. It has been discussed many times before and most weren't aware of the fact they were private. I actually get on well with leon so certainly not a vendetta. It was more of a joke initially yesterday being caught out on a trivial point and we have often bantered on stuff like this. You can of course check this because I am not private. The disabled parking bay chat with @leon was really good fun.
It is a serious issue though and sometime ago I did raise it because @moonshine made a couple of obnoxious links (and I do mean seriously obnoxious [it could have been unintentional] and should have been removed) and I called her out on it. She immediately turned her profile private. That is wrong. The right move is to stick by it or retract it.
Probably worth noting @RobD that recently when @leon was banned for some time I was one of the people arguing that the ban was unjustified.
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making @LostPassword. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
Are you suggesting that a conversation involving Leon might include some gibberish?
How very dare you sir?
Why, you'll be arguing about whether birds are animals or not next.
Well actually I wasn't. I was suggesting I was posting gibberish, but if that is what you infer from it I of course won't disagree.
Re birds you do realise every time you post this I have to make a statement that birds ARE animals just in case anyone thinks I think otherwise. I don't need others to suggest I am an idiot. I'm quite capable of demonstrating that myself.
Yes.
Which cheers everyone up and helps make PB what it is.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
Enjoy every day Nick and good health
Nick is right; don't worry about what you used to do, get interested in something you've always wanted to do, but never got around to it. And Big G is right; you need at least moderately good health. Nothing is more wearing than constant medical, and especially hospital, appointments. Although there can be exceptions, those where one always sees the same people.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
My 50s were my best decade. Seriously. Enjoy!
I found turning 50 deeply troubling, for no reason I could put my finger on.
But then, I was convinced I was still 27 until I got to 62, when I had to reassess. "Late middle age" is proving quite a moveable feast.
40 was the birthday I found depressing. The day I stopped being young.
50 was OK, except for becoming eligible for all those "Over 50" insurance plans, etc, that bracket you in with the elderly.
Mind, being older than the parents of some of my work colleagues does make me feel old.
I turned 60 during COVID lockdown, so I feel cheated out of a celebration. I am really going to party when I am 70.
My advice, peering down from the mid 80's, is to take such an opportunity. My experience, and I gather Big G agrees, is that after 80 'things' do start to go wrong!
There are advantages, in that scammers on the 'phone, when trying sell life insurance etc, lose interest when one says one is over 80!
What might be a more attractive scam offer instead?
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
That’s what somany people have told me. I’ll never be short of anything to do. That and I’ll be surprised how much less I spend.
There is so much stuff I want to do and I’ll get the chance to do it and leaving at the end of Feb when the weather is getting better going into spring seems perfect timing.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
Enjoy every day Nick and good health
Keeping fit by doing the Hippie Hippie Shake ! That's what we want to hear.
To each their own. When I lived in Hampstead, my nearly-retired landlord would jog across the Heath each day from Fleet Road for a dip in the bathing pond, then come back and have a naked shower outside in the yard. It worked for him.
I find that in my 50s I've basically lost a couple of years to illness, and a couple more to Covid, which are now receding. Use it before you lose it.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
Enjoy every day Nick and good health
Keeping fit by doing the Hippie Hippie Shake ! That's what we want to hear.
To each their own. When I lived in Hampstead, my nearly-retired landlord would jog across the Heath each day from Fleet Road for a dip in the bathing pond, then come back and have a naked shower outside in the yard. It worked for him.
I find that in my 50s I've basically lost a couple of years to illness, and a couple more to Covid, which are now receding. Use it before you lose it.
I was doing reasonable well, until out of the blue just over 12 months ago I suffered a huge dvt and it was discovered I had an aneurysm, then 12 months ago next Friday I was told by my cardiologist my heart was 'worn out' and I needed an immediate pacemaker and lifetime monitoring
This happened just as I was reaching 80 and one of the side effects of everything is that my mobility has taken a dive with me using a walking stick on occasions
Together with @OldKingCole I am sure we would both say to all our fellow posters enjoy life to the full whilst you can as age rarely comes along on its own
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
Yup. I recall a hilarious one where it took the American embassy (when it was Grosvenor Gardens) volunteering to pay for the bollards to replace the uglification, well outside the embassy grounds… it was resisted by the kind of clowns who resist everything.
The bollards there were fixed, elegant looking on the surface, but solid steel and going down meters. The other thing was that the decorative looking chains between them were actually high strength, and had a kind of arresting function. That is, the chain was backed by a steel cable on a reel at either end. So if something hit the chain, it would be decelerated in a meter or two - rather than a sudden shock snapping it.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
My 50s were my best decade. Seriously. Enjoy!
I found turning 50 deeply troubling, for no reason I could put my finger on.
But then, I was convinced I was still 27 until I got to 62, when I had to reassess. "Late middle age" is proving quite a moveable feast.
40 was the birthday I found depressing. The day I stopped being young.
50 was OK, except for becoming eligible for all those "Over 50" insurance plans, etc, that bracket you in with the elderly.
Mind, being older than the parents of some of my work colleagues does make me feel old.
I turned 60 during COVID lockdown, so I feel cheated out of a celebration. I am really going to party when I am 70.
My advice, peering down from the mid 80's, is to take such an opportunity. My experience, and I gather Big G agrees, is that after 80 'things' do start to go wrong!
There are advantages, in that scammers on the 'phone, when trying sell life insurance etc, lose interest when one says one is over 80!
What might be a more attractive scam offer instead?
Asking for a scammer friend.
I'm not sure; AFAIK I've only once fallen for a scam.
Someone, using an email address stolen from a friend, wanted some ?Amazon vouchers, I said OK, how big, and the scammer then made the mistake of asking for a very large one. I smelled a rat forthwith.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
Really struggling to find a photo/link to the news article. It was two rows of innocuous flimsy cardboard boxes on Waverley Bridge - a look inside found a mini version of a WWII "Czech Hedgehog" with extremely sharp edges. If you'd tripped and fallen into it...
I think the anti-terror stuff should be part of the process of making our city and town centres much safer for people to wander about in. Not just for Christmas markets and similar events, but a permanent feature that protects a much wider area rather than just a particular street or square.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
"... You’re better than that".
Really? Have I been subscribing to a different PB for the last almost 20 years?
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
2025 is the big five o for me so I imagine I'll be having a midlife crisis next year.
The big 6 0 for me and retirement is imminent.
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
It's very individual, but approaching 75 I don't find I'm getting more conservative - for me, something left of Labour's current inclination feels right, though I'm loyal to the party - but definitely more inclined to let the next generations do whatever they want. What has surprised me is that I'm not short of things to do after retirement - the next priorities that I rarely got round to, includimng a bit more culture, have moved up.
That’s what somany people have told me. I’ll never be short of anything to do. That and I’ll be surprised how much less I spend.
There is so much stuff I want to do and I’ll get the chance to do it and leaving at the end of Feb when the weather is getting better going into spring seems perfect timing.
I'm not so sure how the "spending less" thing works out, most of the things I like to do cost money. And I won't save much by stopping going to work: I have a 4-mile commute, make a packed lunch most days and make coffee at the office rather than being addicted to takeaway coffee. But I should, too, find out next year, I have requested a pension estimate for 31 March for much the same reason as you.
Although most of my retired friends say you never regret going early, if you can afford it.
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
Comments
I would reduce corporation tax to 20%, and add additional council tax bands
Also increase fuel duty
Both our sons went down your path, though, so we have two grandchildren in their mid-thirties, and well settled in careers, but now we've moved back to Uni and teenage issues!
I’ve a nasty feeling that Sir Kier is going to fail. He’s metropolitan, not much clue about those of us that live in places with a river that matters to us.
And it’s not just synecdoche, green space assists us to manage our mental stresses.
The cheap power revolution could work out but the energy market reform required for individuals to see almost free power will be beyond the competence of Labour.
It’s frustrating. They have the power and the political capital but they are frittering it.
Another thing. The two child cap. We need workers. We need generosity, and long term thinking.
I think what could have been a good year is going to be mediocre.
At best.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
We spend a lot of time bemoaning the catastrophy of Brexit on young people no longer being able to travel and work freely in 28 countries but we forget about their young people travelling the other way.
In Seville their country of choice is now Ireland but what a waste of one of our few great natural advantages A country where people want to come to work to learn English and the name is in the title.
In 2025/26 if Starmer reverses Brexit he will be forgiven everything.
I have a suspicion that the HMRC has its own equivalent of the NHS flu crisis every December/January because that's the logical consequence of insisting on 100% efficiency all year round. And that the equivalent of being sensible and getting vaccinated (for the elderly anyway) is getting your return in early and helping HMRC instead of puttin g it in at the last minute at this time of year. Tax inspectors are human and do have holidays and winter illnesses.
Of coruse, also, it's *forbidden* to put in a paper return after 30 October. And even getting signed up for a paper return is more and more difficult.
I'd certainly increase council tax bands, though.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
https://substack.com/@ninapower/note/c-81259921?r=4a6bw9&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
Every year is a gift. I hope you embrace your fifties as another chapter in your life. I did and I don’t regret it at all.
Your body starts slowing down and you cannot do as much as you used to. But you adapt and revel in it.
You can also become crabby and tetchy and get away with it. Great fun.
Indeed shortly after you questioning the speed of the vehicle and even location of the recording, it was announced a small child had died
It may be the film was speeded up, but in my view the horror of the unfolding event made your comments unnecessary
Mrs j bought me a book about a guy who did an Ironman triathlon (eight times the distance of a sprint). My son turned to her and said: "Mum, you're an enabler!"
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Does UCL not teach logic? If so I can understand why you laughed at Bertrand Russell even if he was strange enough to think ontology was valid.
VAT cannot be clawed back by companies incurring a loss in subsequent years, for example.
The haters who associate with Reform clearly want misery and despair to spread their brand of hate and evil.
Hopefully those across the reasonable and decent spectrum from mainstream left to mainstream right will persuade enough of the intellectually challenged not to find a haven in the politics of hate.
If Braverman and Jenrick move to Reform then the Tory Right that's left becomes far more palatable.
If Corbyn takes his dozen or so nutters to join Galloway then Starmers purge is complete.
The mainstream then from left to right, whilst we may disagree passionately can unite to fight Musk and his global uber right consortium that threatens ALL western democracies.
That cancer of evil must be stopped.
Everyone knows you mourn the EU but short of a manifesto commitment to re-join or another referendum it is not happening and neither of those are going to happen before GE 2029
I expect the Trump tariffs and govt ineptitude to push us into proper recession. Only upside is the govt spending slashes that will have to come from it - either from Labour (unlikely), eventual winners of the next election (possible) or imposed by the IMF post bailout (also a possibility) are a year closer!
3️⃣-🔟 Post-Asylum in Germany🇩🇪:
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
https://x.com/salansar1/status/1870383871113433158?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Sending everyone home with a laptop is to home working as Liz Truss is to running the country. It may work by accident, but the evidence is against it.
For example - you are working in software development, with JIRA and Agile, in a paperless office, with Virtual Machines,
You are *already setup* for home working.
- JIRA lists all the tasks. Stuff doesn’t get lost
- Agile means there is an estimation of how long these tasks take. So everyone can see, instantly, who is doing what.
- Paperless office means all the info is online.
- VMs mean that as long as you can login, nothing needs to be on your computer at home. Aside from the remote access app - Citrix, say. So support is centralised.
Even in this case, you have the issue of suitable home office space, team onboarding etc..,
These winds are becoming more common and higher average speeds
Expect travel disruption again
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
The good ones can do all their JIRA tickets from home.
The less good ones manage to not do it properly in the office.
How one turns the latter into the former, without an office environment, is the real tricky part I suspect....
She was declared bankrupt for inability to pay legal fees in July 2024 after she sued somebody for defamation who "labelled her a fascist" (her words I think). She ended up paying 80% of the legal fees of the person she had gone for!
In 2019, Power and Daniel Miller (a writer and editor at dissident-right magazine IM-1776) sued artist Luke Turner for defamation over a series of tweets by Turner. Power and Miller argued the tweets suggested they were both antisemitic. Turner said he was "in terror of the volume and virulence of online abuse directed towards him" from the controversy. Almost £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunder to support Power and Miller's legal action, titled "Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist". Turner countersued for harassment. At trial, it emerged that Power had been writing anonymously for a far-right blog, Parallax Optics, and had shared far-right conspiracy theories with Miller including the idea that black people and white people are different alien races. The judge dismissed the claims of both parties in November 2023, and ordered Power and Miller to pay 80% of all Turner's court costs, with a first instalment of £250,000 due within a fortnight. Following this, Miller and Power were each declared bankrupt in February and July 2024 respectively.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Power
She spoke at NatCon 2023 and wrote for the Spectator and the Telegraph, having previously written for the Guardian and The Wire. I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like some kind of metanoia.
Not a bad interview with her by Freddie Sayers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aI7p1UypGqA&t=850s
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
How very dare you sir?
Why, you'll be arguing about whether birds are animals or not next.
From descriptions of a number of organisations the employees are “soldiering” - the state described by Frederick Taylor.
That is, they are mechanically doing as little work as is required. They fundamentally dislike the job and have zero personal investment in it.
The cause of this is generally a poor working environment which filters *in* the worst employees - the good ones leave. Because they can.
Organisations in that state can stagger on, with management closely monitoring what people are doing.
Very often, such organisations have no task tracking at an individual level.
So when WFH, such employees, in such an organisation, have no motivation to work and there is little or no way to track if they are doing work.
My preferred analogy is that Twitter has become like the Thames, with the proprietor injecting raw sewage.
Also he’s the first person to actually explain how a “refugee doctor” who “hates Islam” ends up mowing
down German kids at a Christmas market
Could be wrong but his thesis is plausible. The anti-Islam stuff was a pose to hide basic criminality and prevent him being deported back to Saudi for his rape charges etc
It might be entertaining to compare activity on social media with incarceration - how many are Twatting up a storm, while supposedly offline behind bars…
Re birds you do realise every time you post this I have to make a statement that birds ARE animals just in case anyone thinks I think otherwise. I don't need others to suggest I am an idiot. I'm quite capable of demonstrating that myself.
That requires a much more difficult culture shift, in the armed forces and the defence industry.
There are advantages, in that scammers on the 'phone, when trying sell life insurance etc, lose interest when one says one is over 80!
Source - we test the river at my rowing club daily.
We'll be two pensioners together.
205 injured; 41 critical
One guy in one car. Eeeesh
Infact when I first raised this it didn't involve @leon at all. It has been discussed many times before and most weren't aware of the fact they were private. I actually get on well with leon so certainly not a vendetta. It was more of a joke initially yesterday being caught out on a trivial point and we have often bantered on stuff like this. You can of course check this because I am not private. The disabled parking bay chat with @leon was really good fun.
It is a serious issue though and sometime ago I did raise it because @moonshine made a couple of obnoxious links (and I do mean seriously obnoxious [it could have been unintentional] and should have been removed) and I called her out on it. She immediately turned her profile private. That is wrong. The right move is to stick by it or retract it.
As I said, the Jamal Khashoggi case shows that the Saudi government can be very (ahem) proactive when it comes to people they see as dissidents, and why someone who had upset that government might feel threatened by that government.
(We have absolutely let Saudi Arabia off the hook over the hideous Jamal Khashoggi murder.)
At the same time, the Middle East is such a gruesome disaster zone - Gaza, Syria, Lebanon - the grim and ugly Saudi regime is beginning to look relatively “moderate” and sensible
Few weeks ago I met a journalist whose husband works in Saudi (she visits him). She says it is as boring and depressing as it appears. But it is safe
I repeatedly see an alliance of islamists and far-rightists posting literally Nazi-era , 1930's antisemitic cartoons, which are not taken down. Extreme anti-semitism is becoming normalised on there, and it even has memes which are seen on subjects which are nothing to do with it. ("Every. Single. Time.", which means these left-wing enemies always turn out to Jewish.)
There are some amusements, though, like broken english islamists from Asia increasingly absorbing the delighting in provocation Trumpist posting-style. "Cry harder, Congress secularists. Modi will serve your ass !".
It is, as Jean-Paul Sartre would have said, incressingly a bath de merde.
Besides, it’s just Christmas banter. I’m actually in a benign mood
Speaking of which - have a good one yourself: 🍾🥂
Of course, that includes anyone who reports the wrong kind of crime.
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
If so, then it's a very human failing.
It sounds like the 'loss of attention to detail in public services' (my summary) that I get the impression is perceived to be impacting on quality of the public realm in Germany over the last several years - even basics such as trains running on time.
Which cheers everyone up and helps make PB what it is.
And Big G is right; you need at least moderately good health. Nothing is more wearing than constant medical, and especially hospital, appointments. Although there can be exceptions, those where one always sees the same people.
Asking for a scammer friend.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
There is so much stuff I want to do and I’ll get the chance to do it and leaving at the end of Feb when the weather is getting better going into spring seems perfect timing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M2uDhWd3RI
To each their own. When I lived in Hampstead, my nearly-retired landlord would jog across the Heath each day from Fleet Road for a dip in the bathing pond, then come back and have a naked shower outside in the yard. It worked for him.
I find that in my 50s I've basically lost a couple of years to illness, and a couple more to Covid, which are now receding. Use it before you lose it.
And they want Musk to reorganize the entire US government? LOL
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
This happened just as I was reaching 80 and one of the side effects of everything is that my mobility has taken a dive with me using a walking stick on occasions
Together with @OldKingCole I am sure we would both say to all our fellow posters enjoy life to the full whilst you can as age rarely comes along on its own
The bollards there were fixed, elegant looking on the surface, but solid steel and going down meters. The other thing was that the decorative looking chains between them were actually high strength, and had a kind of arresting function. That is, the chain was backed by a steel cable on a reel at either end. So if something hit the chain, it would be decelerated in a meter or two - rather than a sudden shock snapping it.
Someone, using an email address stolen from a friend, wanted some ?Amazon vouchers, I said OK, how big, and the scammer then made the mistake of asking for a very large one.
I smelled a rat forthwith.
Tens of thousands of turkeys have been culled because of a flare-up, The Telegraph understands.
Telegraph
Tons of the concrete barrier crap, last time I was there.
A Hedgehog to me is one of those D-Day beaches or Ukraine anti-tank metal structures.
I think the anti-terror stuff should be part of the process of making our city and town centres much safer for people to wander about in. Not just for Christmas markets and similar events, but a permanent feature that protects a much wider area rather than just a particular street or square.
Have a nice Christmas, comrade!
Although most of my retired friends say you never regret going early, if you can afford it.