Are there any remaining Kemi fans on PB, or is she now universally believed a dud ?
Kemi's plan is to stay quiet for 2-3+ years before she rolls out lots of policy reviews. By that time people will have long made their minds up on her, and the Conservative Party, and they will land totally flat and be completely ignored.
CCHQ wants to communicate that the "quietness" is down to the focus on this and internal Conservative party structures, whereas it's actually down to her passivity and lack of energy and drive.
She doesn't seem to understand the party is like a cornered rat at the moment and needs to fight for its life.
...She - like far too many politicians in all parties - is too fond of repeating old mantras and thinking that what worked in the past will work again if they can only package it right. It won't. There needs to be a proper analysis of what is going wrong now and intelligent thought about the remedies for a different future. We are not in 1979 or 1997 and reheating what sort of worked then is lazy politics. This applies to Starmer too...
A recognition that not a few of our problems result from the engrained beliefs of the Thatcher and Blair eras, and an analysis of what might be done to fix that, is largely lacking in contemporary politics.
To give them a little credit, Labour's planning/housing policies are actually a tentative move in that direction, but there's no much else there.
From my draft manuscript
"There are some functions and duties which only the state can do fairly. Abandoning responsibility for these leads to abuse of power and harm to the vulnerable.........
That exercise and the proper understanding of risks and the state’s obligations to its citizens - to protect them from the exercise of arbitrary unjustified power, to protect them from harm - is the essence of government. It is not one which can be sloughed off on others: either to save money or in the belief that unaccountable private bodies with other interests can or will do the job for them.
Instead, this retreat has led to a state and many of its institutions which have - far too often - failed in many of the state’s basic functions and responsibilities, which have failed to get the basics right, basics which include criminal justice, policing, health, building safety, effective regulation of the financial sector and care for our children.
It has led to a state which - far too often - has forgotten what public service is meant to be, which has treated those it is meant to serve with indifference, contempt and dismissiveness. It has led to a state which has created - or allowed to develop - a climate in which far too many companies and individuals have put their own personal financial, commercial or other interests first, have disregarded the rules and laws and standards of professionalism, integrity, honour and decency, even at the expense of others’ lives.
It has led to a state which too often has itself used every possible avenue to avoid accepting any sort of responsibility or accountability for its actions and has made it acceptable for others (both companies and individuals) to do the same. It has led to a degradation of professional and personal conduct, a tolerance of lies and deception and serious damage to the trust we should have in our public institutions. It has led to a state which fails - until far too late - to admit error, let alone right its mistakes and compensate those it has harmed through its actions."
I am, I know, a broken record on this. But repairing this trust is - for me - the most important task of government. That is why Starmer's inept response over freebies, his broken promises to farmers, even the way they announced the correct decision on WASPI women is damaging. It erodes rather than rebuilds trust. He has time to recover. The Tories don't even seem to see the problem. Reform just moan. The Greens are batshit insane and the Lib Dems are the Waitrose equivalent of Reform - a politer version of "Isn't everything awful".
Anyway need to do some work.
Go to the bookshop and order "Late Soviet Britain" by Laura Innes. She details how the Thatcher/Blair reforms, whilst promising to create a hands-off version of Government, just ended up creating a regime of nomenklatura fixers and overseers that are a law unto themselves, creating a command-and-control structure very similar to, say, the Brezhnev era.
Then when you are done (it is a very dense book), order "The Rise and Fall of the British Nation" in which David Edgerton details how things used to be done and its eventual evolution to how things are done now.
It is often instructive to see how things developed to understand how we got here, and both books detail 20th century history to that end.
On topic. Badenoch needs to do something unexpected. The Blair playbook is still the best. I remember early on him being asked what he thought about people making obscene amounts of money and he said he had no problem with David Beckham making a million.
Chasing the farmers and rich pensioners isn't the way to go for a Tory. Just too predictable. The best advice I was given was to Zig whenever everyone else Zagged. At the moment she's in lockstep with farage
The big missed opportunity in my opinion is that Badenoch's backstory is genuinely interesting. An immigrant who is one step away from being prime minister of a major country. Not the child of immigrants, but actual immigrant.
Problem is immigration is seen as so toxic even to Badenoch herself it seems, they don't dare to admit any of this of this, or try weave it into an Abraham Lincoln style log cabin narrative.
Spending your career demonising immigrants when you are one yourself could be problematic even for a Tory. I used to wonder how Braverman could talk about immigrants as if they were something she'd scraped off her shoe when there but for fortune they could be her parents or grandparents as it could be with many of us.
"actual immigrant."
Wasn't she born in London?
Yeah but she's not white, to racists like him that means she'll always be an immigrant even if born in this country.
Libel.
Apologies to the owners of the site. In case of any concerns I have absolutely no intention of following up. @BartholomewRoberts needs to be a lot more careful what he writes however.
I wasn't speaking about you, and what I said was true.
So do you think the current laws are wrong and someone who is born in a British hospital should automatically be British, as they were before the 1981 British Nationality Act?
I think that irrespective of that question, it’s plain stupid to call them an immigrant.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
Don't want to bust your bubble, but SOHCATOA isn't Pythagoras, and is missing a character.
Pythagoras is that for any right angled triangle, a² + b² = c² where a and b are the lengths of the short sides and c the long side (hypotenuse)
SOHCA[b]H[/b]TOA is the functions of Sin Cos and Tan in the context of the sides a right angled triangle: Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse Cos = Adjacent/Hypotenuse Tan = Opposite/Adjacent
Is a rubbish way to learn it - far better the phrase "Tommy On A Ship Of His Caught All Herring"
I use trig functions all the time, hand coding ancient Heidenhain TNC 150 series CNC controls on the machining centres at work.
Yes I meant to add I remember pythagorus but not that one.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
Don't want to bust your bubble, but SOHCATOA isn't Pythagoras, and is missing a character.
Pythagoras is that for any right angled triangle, a² + b² = c² where a and b are the lengths of the short sides and c the long side (hypotenuse)
SOHCA[b]H[/b]TOA is the functions of Sin Cos and Tan in the context of the sides a right angled triangle: Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse Cos = Adjacent/Hypotenuse Tan = Opposite/Adjacent
Is a rubbish way to learn it - far better the phrase "Tommy On A Ship Of His Caught All Herring"
I use trig functions all the time, hand coding ancient Heidenhain TNC 150 series CNC controls on the machining centres at work.
The old Arab sat on his camal and howled (from a 1980’s grammar education).
The one I picked up was "the cat sat on an orange and had hysterics", which is a bit weird because it stripes across the three equations rather than doing them in order.
The French Minister of Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu has announced that the French Air Force carried out several Airstrikes on Sunday against ISIS Targets within Syria, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve; with him releasing Footage showing a number of the Strikes.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
Don't want to bust your bubble, but SOHCATOA isn't Pythagoras, and is missing a character.
Pythagoras is that for any right angled triangle, a² + b² = c² where a and b are the lengths of the short sides and c the long side (hypotenuse)
SOHCA[b]H[/b]TOA is the functions of Sin Cos and Tan in the context of the sides a right angled triangle: Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse Cos = Adjacent/Hypotenuse Tan = Opposite/Adjacent
Is a rubbish way to learn it - far better the phrase "Tommy On A Ship Of His Caught All Herring"
I use trig functions all the time, hand coding ancient Heidenhain TNC 150 series CNC controls on the machining centres at work.
Good summary.
SOHCAHTOA has always worked for me, and I've remembered it my whole life.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
SOHCAHTOA
You missed an H
With Pythagoras
Sin² + Cos² = 1
Who doesn't use that every day?
I have only used Pythagoras' theorem once in anger. A work colleague was planning to install a shower cubicle in his downstairs WC and needed to check that the door, which swung inwards from the opposite corner, wouldn't hit the cubicle.
I am currently using Bayes theorem to find my son's tablet. With no success. He was using it too much and had cracked the password on the parental controls. So we hid it and forgot where. I have promised him a new one if we don't find it by the end if the year. The situation is getting critical.
The turning of the year should be a time for quiet contemplation and reflection, taking stock of our lives, and what we think they might have in store.
But people would rather just get shit faced.
Well, speaking for myself, I have done the contemplation and reflection stuff, especially since I have no desire to get blind drunk.
So I have decided to halt my PB interaction at 8192 posts as it is a nice round number.
For various reasons my work in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) involves lots of multiples of 2, so I applaud the choice of 8192 - doubling up from 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096). But please stay.
Definitely stay! At least until 16,384 which is my favourite.
I have been on PB for well over 10 years and possibly 15 years, certainly back in the day when Plato and myself used to discuss shoes, cooking and, occasionally, cats!
It is time to move on and I do not want to face another 8192 posts and the last day of the year seems like an appropriate time.
Thank you to you all (even CR ) and a Happy New Year to everyone.
Don't set a definite departure time as it inevitably gets broken. Instead, comment less or only when you feel you must. That's a lot more healthier and I think the site will be less for your absence
The songs I've loved this year, with no particular order or claims of artistic merit, including the albums where I've loved them too:
Kid Kapichi - Get Down; Oliver Twist (both from There Goes The Neighbourhood) The Reytons - Seven in Search of Ten, 2006 (from Ballad of a Bystander) Hozier - Too Sweet Bambie Thug - Doomsday Blue Jade - Angel of my Dreams Vampire Weekend - Capricorn, Hope (from my album of the year, Only God Was Above Us) Beabadobee - Beaches Hank - DYLM (my song of the year, from Twist Grip EP) MJ Lenderman - On My Knees (from Manning Fireworks)
I think the most recent songs which breached my consciousness were Despacito and New Rules.
Probably just vibes. Public expectations for Labour were too high. Public awareness of Kemi's economic policies, if she has any, will be essentially nil.
The French Minister of Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu has announced that the French Air Force carried out several Airstrikes on Sunday against ISIS Targets within Syria, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve; with him releasing Footage showing a number of the Strikes.
The songs I've loved this year, with no particular order or claims of artistic merit, including the albums where I've loved them too:
Kid Kapichi - Get Down; Oliver Twist (both from There Goes The Neighbourhood) The Reytons - Seven in Search of Ten, 2006 (from Ballad of a Bystander) Hozier - Too Sweet Bambie Thug - Doomsday Blue Jade - Angel of my Dreams Vampire Weekend - Capricorn, Hope (from my album of the year, Only God Was Above Us) Beabadobee - Beaches Hank - DYLM (my song of the year, from Twist Grip EP) MJ Lenderman - On My Knees (from Manning Fireworks)
I think the most recent songs which breached my consciousness were Despacito and New Rules.
I'm just toddling off to bed, but the track that came to me tonight was...
Where I work, everyone who does loads of overtime, and we all work Sundays too, is in their 40s
Are we a hard working generation, or is my.office an anomaly?
I bet you're cisgender too.
It depends.
I think that the shit jobs, where it's run by David Brent, the work itself is pointless etc. - the young are simply not buying into the bullshit. Good for them.
In the bank I work for, the grads come in. They do a few months in a series of rotations across the teams, to see what they actually want to do. Then after about 6 rotations, they get to pick/be picked for a permanent slot. Add decent pay, reasonable conditions and management that doesn't treat you like disposable tissue - strangely, they work hard and well, for the most part.
The turning of the year should be a time for quiet contemplation and reflection, taking stock of our lives, and what we think they might have in store.
But people would rather just get shit faced.
Well, speaking for myself, I have done the contemplation and reflection stuff, especially since I have no desire to get blind drunk.
So I have decided to halt my PB interaction at 8192 posts as it is a nice round number.
For various reasons my work in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) involves lots of multiples of 2, so I applaud the choice of 8192 - doubling up from 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096). But please stay.
Definitely stay! At least until 16,384 which is my favourite.
I have been on PB for well over 10 years and possibly 15 years, certainly back in the day when Plato and myself used to discuss shoes, cooking and, occasionally, cats!
It is time to move on and I do not want to face another 8192 posts and the last day of the year seems like an appropriate time.
Thank you to you all (even CR ) and a Happy New Year to everyone.
It's a great shame to lose one of the very few female voices on this forum (I'm assuming something here...). PB's collective New Year resolution should, in my view, to be to make a concerted effort to attract, and not alienate, more female contributors. Meanwhile, happy new year to all.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
SOHCAHTOA
You missed an H
With Pythagoras
Sin² + Cos² = 1
Who doesn't use that every day?
I have only used Pythagoras' theorem once in anger. A work colleague was planning to install a shower cubicle in his downstairs WC and needed to check that the door, which swung inwards from the opposite corner, wouldn't hit the cubicle.
I am currently using Bayes theorem to find my son's tablet. With no success. He was using it too much and had cracked the password on the parental controls. So we hid it and forgot where. I have promised him a new one if we don't find it by the end if the year. The situation is getting critical.
So betting with bottles of whisky on the location?
The turning of the year should be a time for quiet contemplation and reflection, taking stock of our lives, and what we think they might have in store.
But people would rather just get shit faced.
Well, speaking for myself, I have done the contemplation and reflection stuff, especially since I have no desire to get blind drunk.
So I have decided to halt my PB interaction at 8192 posts as it is a nice round number.
For various reasons my work in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) involves lots of multiples of 2, so I applaud the choice of 8192 - doubling up from 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096). But please stay.
Definitely stay! At least until 16,384 which is my favourite.
I have been on PB for well over 10 years and possibly 15 years, certainly back in the day when Plato and myself used to discuss shoes, cooking and, occasionally, cats!
It is time to move on and I do not want to face another 8192 posts and the last day of the year seems like an appropriate time.
Thank you to you all (even CR ) and a Happy New Year to everyone.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
Don't want to bust your bubble, but SOHCATOA isn't Pythagoras, and is missing a character.
Pythagoras is that for any right angled triangle, a² + b² = c² where a and b are the lengths of the short sides and c the long side (hypotenuse)
SOHCA[b]H[/b]TOA is the functions of Sin Cos and Tan in the context of the sides a right angled triangle: Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse Cos = Adjacent/Hypotenuse Tan = Opposite/Adjacent
Is a rubbish way to learn it - far better the phrase "Tommy On A Ship Of His Caught All Herring"
I use trig functions all the time, hand coding ancient Heidenhain TNC 150 series CNC controls on the machining centres at work.
Good summary.
SOHCAHTOA has always worked for me, and I've remembered it my whole life.
Also: BODMAS ( Brackets, Of, Divide, Multiply, Add, Subtract) to get the order of applying operators I Wish I Knew - the root of 2 (1.414) O Procure For Me - the root of 3 (1.732)
The turning of the year should be a time for quiet contemplation and reflection, taking stock of our lives, and what we think they might have in store.
But people would rather just get shit faced.
Well, speaking for myself, I have done the contemplation and reflection stuff, especially since I have no desire to get blind drunk.
So I have decided to halt my PB interaction at 8192 posts as it is a nice round number.
For various reasons my work in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) involves lots of multiples of 2, so I applaud the choice of 8192 - doubling up from 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096). But please stay.
Definitely stay! At least until 16,384 which is my favourite.
I have been on PB for well over 10 years and possibly 15 years, certainly back in the day when Plato and myself used to discuss shoes, cooking and, occasionally, cats!
It is time to move on and I do not want to face another 8192 posts and the last day of the year seems like an appropriate time.
Thank you to you all (even CR ) and a Happy New Year to everyone.
Goodbye Bev, it's been great these years, but time to move on I suppose.
I've just read that Sunak did try and scrap the triple-lock, in a budget conversation in June 2021, so the elderly shared in the sacrifices their children and grandchildren made in the pandemic, but he was overruled by Johnson.
I’ve just come off TF1 coverage (fireworks and le hip hop at chateau de Chantilly) to the beeb, with Sophie Ellis Bexter.
I was hoping the clear superiority of the French feux d’artifice and generally much better looks of that nation’s people would be compensated for by a less cheesy, more edgy British production. But sadly not. It’s actually more cheesy and poorer quality than the silver-fox and bobbed brunette lineup of our Gallic friends, which is saying something.
I’ve just come off TF1 coverage (fireworks and le hip hop at chateau de Chantilly) to the beeb, with Sophie Ellis Bexter.
I was hoping the clear superiority of the French feux d’artifice and generally much better looks of that nation’s people would be compensated for by a less cheesy, more edgy British production. But sadly not. It’s actually more cheesy and poorer quality than the silver-fox and bobbed brunette lineup of our Gallic friends, which is saying something.
So I did 9700 steps per day in 2023, but only 5800 in 2024.
Damn you that new job with an hour’s commute either way.
I need a target for 2024, perhaps.
I think a couple of times a week, with a 6 mile cycle there and back might be a start. Plus some more public footpath surveying on foot ot the Brompton.
He's making a serious play for younger voters with all the wittering on about Churchill.
Do younger voters know/care who Churchill was? Especially if they haven't 'done' WWII in history at school!
They'll know who he was, almost certainly. Caring will depend on if a particular perception or Churchill becomes part of the intended tribal experience.
Like how people who continue to bang on about Thatcher, on left and right, with the kind of passion as if they had been there at the time. You don't seen it quite as much now. (not that people cannot care about political history, but the intensity was so overblown for a long time).
My Chemistry teacher mate told me that whenever he covered a history class, they were doing the second world war in one aspect or another, so the kids will know who Churchill is, although these days, following the rise of Indian nationalism, they may see Churchill as a war criminal for killing millions in the Bengal Famine. Churchill is also on the £5 note if anyone still uses cash.
The Thatcher thing is slightly different. One reason for banging on about Mrs T is to point out to Conservatives that they have departed from her one true path even while professing to venerate her.
It is a bit like banging on about Reagan to remind American Republicans that Trump's isolationism is far removed from Reagan's shining city upon a hill and defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. (Although even under Reagan, it was more rhetoric than policy!)
You're quite optimistic.
Something being taught in school and kids actually knowing it are two completely different things!
Everyone is taught Pythagoras Theorem, but I wonder how many actually know it?
Can anyone who doesn't need it for work remember SOHCATOA. I remember the acronym (I think) and that it let me calculate angles but no idea how to apply it now.
SOHCAHTOA
You missed an H
With Pythagoras
Sin² + Cos² = 1
Who doesn't use that every day?
I have only used Pythagoras' theorem once in anger. A work colleague was planning to install a shower cubicle in his downstairs WC and needed to check that the door, which swung inwards from the opposite corner, wouldn't hit the cubicle.
I am currently using Bayes theorem to find my son's tablet. With no success. He was using it too much and had cracked the password on the parental controls. So we hid it and forgot where. I have promised him a new one if we don't find it by the end if the year. The situation is getting critical.
A tag - Air or otherwise - would have been cheaper.
I say that he knew where you hid it, and has hidden it from you, and that you will find it where you thought you hid it in a few days - after his new one arrives.
And that youngsters are better at poker faces than you think.
The probability of you finding it, given that the probability that he has rehidden it is One, is Zero.
Elections this year in Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway.
On the current polls you’d expect defeats for the incumbents in Germany and Canada. In Norway, the Progress Party, their equivalent of Reform, is ahead of the Conservatives and well up on the last election. The governing coalition parties have lost about half their vote.
In Australia, the opposition Liberal-National coalition has a healthy lead over Labor but with the Greens and Independents still polling well, the two-party split of 51-49 in favour of Liberal-National suggests this will be close.
My answer to Robert is simple: we now have the internet. Before the internet we all lived in a consensual hallucination in which we thought that we were on the same side and the Government was doing its best for us. After the internet we know that isn't true. Hence the discontent.
Are there any remaining Kemi fans on PB, or is she now universally believed a dud ?
Kemi's plan is to stay quiet for 2-3+ years before she rolls out lots of policy reviews. By that time people will have long made their minds up on her, and the Conservative Party, and they will land totally flat and be completely ignored.
CCHQ wants to communicate that the "quietness" is down to the focus on this and internal Conservative party structures, whereas it's actually down to her passivity and lack of energy and drive.
She doesn't seem to understand the party is like a cornered rat at the moment and needs to fight for its life.
...She - like far too many politicians in all parties - is too fond of repeating old mantras and thinking that what worked in the past will work again if they can only package it right. It won't. There needs to be a proper analysis of what is going wrong now and intelligent thought about the remedies for a different future. We are not in 1979 or 1997 and reheating what sort of worked then is lazy politics. This applies to Starmer too...
A recognition that not a few of our problems result from the engrained beliefs of the Thatcher and Blair eras, and an analysis of what might be done to fix that, is largely lacking in contemporary politics.
To give them a little credit, Labour's planning/housing policies are actually a tentative move in that direction, but there's no much else there.
From my draft manuscript
"There are some functions and duties which only the state can do fairly. Abandoning responsibility for these leads to abuse of power and harm to the vulnerable.........
That exercise and the proper understanding of risks and the state’s obligations to its citizens - to protect them from the exercise of arbitrary unjustified power, to protect them from harm - is the essence of government. It is not one which can be sloughed off on others: either to save money or in the belief that unaccountable private bodies with other interests can or will do the job for them.
Instead, this retreat has led to a state and many of its institutions which have - far too often - failed in many of the state’s basic functions and responsibilities, which have failed to get the basics right, basics which include criminal justice, policing, health, building safety, effective regulation of the financial sector and care for our children.
It has led to a state which - far too often - has forgotten what public service is meant to be, which has treated those it is meant to serve with indifference, contempt and dismissiveness. It has led to a state which has created - or allowed to develop - a climate in which far too many companies and individuals have put their own personal financial, commercial or other interests first, have disregarded the rules and laws and standards of professionalism, integrity, honour and decency, even at the expense of others’ lives.
It has led to a state which too often has itself used every possible avenue to avoid accepting any sort of responsibility or accountability for its actions and has made it acceptable for others (both companies and individuals) to do the same. It has led to a degradation of professional and personal conduct, a tolerance of lies and deception and serious damage to the trust we should have in our public institutions. It has led to a state which fails - until far too late - to admit error, let alone right its mistakes and compensate those it has harmed through its actions."
I am, I know, a broken record on this. But repairing this trust is - for me - the most important task of government. That is why Starmer's inept response over freebies, his broken promises to farmers, even the way they announced the correct decision on WASPI women is damaging. It erodes rather than rebuilds trust. He has time to recover. The Tories don't even seem to see the problem. Reform just moan. The Greens are batshit insane and the Lib Dems are the Waitrose equivalent of Reform - a politer version of "Isn't everything awful".
Anyway need to do some work.
Go to the bookshop and order "Late Soviet Britain" by Laura Innes. She details how the Thatcher/Blair reforms, whilst promising to create a hands-off version of Government, just ended up creating a regime of nomenklatura fixers and overseers that are a law unto themselves, creating a command-and-control structure very similar to, say, the Brezhnev era.
Then when you are done (it is a very dense book), order "The Rise and Fall of the British Nation" in which David Edgerton details how things used to be done and its eventual evolution to how things are done now.
It is often instructive to see how things developed to understand how we got here, and both books detail 20th century history to that end.
I’d normally be up for that, but the handful of reviews seem to suggest people who enjoy the conclusion rather more than the book itself.
It only feels like about 10 years since the year 2000 to me. Time seems to speed up.
I know, it’s scary. I completed a big work project that year, and it still doesn’t seem that long ago.
That the length of time between now and my student days is the same as the length of time between my student days and the outbreak of WWII simply doesn’t compute. History all seems a lot more recent when you are older.
Are there any remaining Kemi fans on PB, or is she now universally believed a dud ?
Kemi's plan is to stay quiet for 2-3+ years before she rolls out lots of policy reviews. By that time people will have long made their minds up on her, and the Conservative Party, and they will land totally flat and be completely ignored.
CCHQ wants to communicate that the "quietness" is down to the focus on this and internal Conservative party structures, whereas it's actually down to her passivity and lack of energy and drive.
She doesn't seem to understand the party is like a cornered rat at the moment and needs to fight for its life.
...She - like far too many politicians in all parties - is too fond of repeating old mantras and thinking that what worked in the past will work again if they can only package it right. It won't. There needs to be a proper analysis of what is going wrong now and intelligent thought about the remedies for a different future. We are not in 1979 or 1997 and reheating what sort of worked then is lazy politics. This applies to Starmer too...
A recognition that not a few of our problems result from the engrained beliefs of the Thatcher and Blair eras, and an analysis of what might be done to fix that, is largely lacking in contemporary politics.
To give them a little credit, Labour's planning/housing policies are actually a tentative move in that direction, but there's no much else there.
From my draft manuscript
"There are some functions and duties which only the state can do fairly. Abandoning responsibility for these leads to abuse of power and harm to the vulnerable.........
That exercise and the proper understanding of risks and the state’s obligations to its citizens - to protect them from the exercise of arbitrary unjustified power, to protect them from harm - is the essence of government. It is not one which can be sloughed off on others: either to save money or in the belief that unaccountable private bodies with other interests can or will do the job for them.
Instead, this retreat has led to a state and many of its institutions which have - far too often - failed in many of the state’s basic functions and responsibilities, which have failed to get the basics right, basics which include criminal justice, policing, health, building safety, effective regulation of the financial sector and care for our children.
It has led to a state which - far too often - has forgotten what public service is meant to be, which has treated those it is meant to serve with indifference, contempt and dismissiveness. It has led to a state which has created - or allowed to develop - a climate in which far too many companies and individuals have put their own personal financial, commercial or other interests first, have disregarded the rules and laws and standards of professionalism, integrity, honour and decency, even at the expense of others’ lives.
It has led to a state which too often has itself used every possible avenue to avoid accepting any sort of responsibility or accountability for its actions and has made it acceptable for others (both companies and individuals) to do the same. It has led to a degradation of professional and personal conduct, a tolerance of lies and deception and serious damage to the trust we should have in our public institutions. It has led to a state which fails - until far too late - to admit error, let alone right its mistakes and compensate those it has harmed through its actions."
I am, I know, a broken record on this. But repairing this trust is - for me - the most important task of government. That is why Starmer's inept response over freebies, his broken promises to farmers, even the way they announced the correct decision on WASPI women is damaging. It erodes rather than rebuilds trust. He has time to recover. The Tories don't even seem to see the problem. Reform just moan. The Greens are batshit insane and the Lib Dems are the Waitrose equivalent of Reform - a politer version of "Isn't everything awful".
Anyway need to do some work.
Go to the bookshop and order "Late Soviet Britain" by Laura Innes. She details how the Thatcher/Blair reforms, whilst promising to create a hands-off version of Government, just ended up creating a regime of nomenklatura fixers and overseers that are a law unto themselves, creating a command-and-control structure very similar to, say, the Brezhnev era.
Then when you are done (it is a very dense book), order "The Rise and Fall of the British Nation" in which David Edgerton details how things used to be done and its eventual evolution to how things are done now.
It is often instructive to see how things developed to understand how we got here, and both books detail 20th century history to that end.
I’d normally be up for that, but the handful of reviews seem to suggest people who enjoy the conclusion rather more than the book itself.
Assuming you mean the Innes book, yes, it is dense and a hard read: you have to take notes. I'm about two-thirds of the way thru in my first read, and I'll have to re-read it a couple of times more to get it.
But if you mean the Edgerton book, he's far more approachable.
Good morning! And a Happy New Year to all! Didn’t See the New Year in; after an early start yesterday we both crashed out about 10.30pm! Let us hope for better times in 2025!
More than a thousand years ago we learned that paying the Danegeld means the Dane keeps coming back.
Amazing that. 45 years after the winter of discontent, people still don't get that the greed of unions is insatiable. But then of course they largely fund the (misnamed) Labour Party so we're stuck with them for the next four years at least I'm afraid.
The dog has confirmed it is both wet and windy outside. Hasty retreat beaten; now rather more gruntled, sleeping against my legs on the bed.
Having spent as near a silent half hour cleaning up phase 1 of the party debris as I could, I am rewarding myself with a New Year Lie-in.
I suspect the Good Lady will have some innate ability to stay abed until I have finished phases 2 and 3 of the clean up.
Phase 4 will require a tip run.
Night-night (again)
Hope you can get to sleep. Heavy rain plus occasional fireworks meant I was waking up numerous times.
There'll be plenty of local flooding, I think.
Oddly, I was just thinking how the heavy rain meant at least there weren't hundreds of bloody fireworks going off all night.
Mr Dog likes wind and rain on NYE. It’s been this way several years running, here. Although last night they managed to get the small town display off early, come midnight there was next to nothing.
More than a thousand years ago we learned that paying the Danegeld means the Dane keeps coming back.
Amazing that. 45 years after the winter of discontent, people still don't get that the greed of unions is insatiable. But then of course they largely fund the (misnamed) Labour Party so we're stuck with them for the next four years at least I'm afraid.
It's the high wage economy that Johnson promised us that brexit would deliver. You should be ripping the head off your old boy over it.
Comments
Then when you are done (it is a very dense book), order "The Rise and Fall of the British Nation" in which David Edgerton details how things used to be done and its eventual evolution to how things are done now.
It is often instructive to see how things developed to understand how we got here, and both books detail 20th century history to that end.
https://crewe.nub.news/news/local-news/scenes-of-crewe-50-years-ago-what-did-it-look-like-247404
Seven minutes of Super-8 footage of Crewe station in 1974.
I’m off to bed early.
https://bsky.app/profile/razanspeaks.bsky.social/post/3lemypcacoc26
The French Minister of Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu has announced that the French Air Force carried out several Airstrikes on Sunday against ISIS Targets within Syria, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve; with him releasing Footage showing a number of the Strikes.
SOHCAHTOA has always worked for me, and I've remembered it my whole life.
Are we a hard working generation, or is my.office an anomaly?
How did that happen ?
https://news.sky.com/story/new-years-days-national-newspaper-front-pages-12427754
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VapVbH9uByA
DM Stith - "Braid of Voices" (Meditation)
(there are quite a few other mixes of it - but this one is quite pretty).
And with that, cat and I are off to bed before falling asleep on the sofa. Have a good 2025 everyone!
I think that the shit jobs, where it's run by David Brent, the work itself is pointless etc. - the young are simply not buying into the bullshit. Good for them.
In the bank I work for, the grads come in. They do a few months in a series of rotations across the teams, to see what they actually want to do. Then after about 6 rotations, they get to pick/be picked for a permanent slot. Add decent pay, reasonable conditions and management that doesn't treat you like disposable tissue - strangely, they work hard and well, for the most part.
There's a lesson in there. I wonder what that is?
PB's collective New Year resolution should, in my view, to be to make a concerted effort to attract, and not alienate, more female contributors.
Meanwhile, happy new year to all.
BODMAS ( Brackets, Of, Divide, Multiply, Add, Subtract) to get the order of applying operators
I Wish I Knew - the root of 2 (1.414)
O Procure For Me - the root of 3 (1.732)
He's gone up in my estimation.
HNY!
I wish I aged so well
I was hoping the clear superiority of the French feux d’artifice and generally much better looks of that nation’s people would be compensated for by a less cheesy, more edgy British production. But sadly not. It’s actually more cheesy and poorer quality than the silver-fox and bobbed brunette lineup of our Gallic friends, which is saying something.
It won't be that bad, even though it starts WTF.
She also talks exactly how she sounds when she sings, which isn't always the case.
I think a couple of times a week, with a 6 mile cycle there and back might be a start. Plus some more public footpath surveying on foot ot the Brompton.
And good luck Beibheirli. Always welcome to pop your head back round for an occasion or a pointless argument.
All the best for 2025 🙏
HNY, Malc.
What madness will 2025 bring?
Isn't the implication that everyone else can f off?
I say that he knew where you hid it, and has hidden it from you, and that you will find it where you thought you hid it in a few days - after his new one arrives.
And that youngsters are better at poker faces than you think.
The probability of you finding it, given that the probability that he has rehidden it is One, is Zero.
In Australia, the opposition Liberal-National coalition has a healthy lead over Labor but with the Greens and Independents still polling well, the two-party split of 51-49 in favour of Liberal-National suggests this will be close.
World’s richest man whose money helped secure election victory ‘drops in at dinners and listens into calls with US president-elect’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/12/31/elon-musk-cottage-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-estate/ (£££)
Spare a thought for the homeless.
I've also been thinking about this. Life is hard for many people, but we are nowhere near the conditions of the 1930s or even the '70s. For all their faults, democratic states provide services today beyond the imagination of most generations. So we need a deeper analysis of democratic discontent.
My answer to Robert is simple: we now have the internet. Before the internet we all lived in a consensual hallucination in which we thought that we were on the same side and the Government was doing its best for us. After the internet we know that isn't true. Hence the discontent.
That the length of time between now and my student days is the same as the length of time between my student days and the outbreak of WWII simply doesn’t compute. History all seems a lot more recent when you are older.
But if you mean the Edgerton book, he's far more approachable.
Damascus celebrations:
https://x.com/DrewPavlou/status/1874244252924076042
Still not your average Islamic state.
My research has revealed it is raining outside.
Having spent as near a silent half hour cleaning up phase 1 of the party debris as I could, I am rewarding myself with a New Year Lie-in.
I suspect the Good Lady will have some innate ability to stay abed until I have finished phases 2 and 3 of the clean up.
Phase 4 will require a tip run.
Night-night (again)
There'll be plenty of local flooding, I think.
Didn’t See the New Year in; after an early start yesterday we both crashed out about 10.30pm!
Let us hope for better times in 2025!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgzpwdkl01o
Amazing that. 45 years after the winter of discontent, people still don't get that the greed of unions is insatiable. But then of course they largely fund the (misnamed) Labour Party so we're stuck with them for the next four years at least I'm afraid.