In 2027 will I be writing 'Shortly there will be an election, in which Labour will increase its majo

SandyRentool said:

TimS said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Airport lounges and airline frequent flyer programs are the most successful weaponisation of status anxiety in human history, with private schools a distant second. The lengths people will go to to drink mid-price wine surrounded by other smug boomers in their garden centre outfits is quite astonishing.

You have a point, but you're overdoing it. Airports are generally not relaxing or comfortable places, and lounges are relaxing and comfortable. They make a big difference to the travel experience. The freebies are a bonus, and everyone loves a freebie. I doubt many seek out tier points for the sort of social status reasons you suggest, though doubtless some at the upper end of the tiers do.

And then you get whichever holiday company it is offering complimentary lounge access if you book a holiday with them - their ad featuring an obnoxious family annoying everyone else. So perhaps sitting on the floor next to Pret isn't so bad after all.

david_herdson said:

On topic, I fully agree with TSE. This is Westminster Wonkery at its finest (ie worst).

A government elected with a landslide majority has no cause to go to the country after two years. On what basis? Delivery? There won't be any because the only actual decisions the govt has taken so far have been to piss things off and make them (temporarily, one assumes Labour expects), worse. Mandate? It already has that, unless it wants to rat on a pledge. Preventative, before things really go down the pan? Hardly an inspiring message. To take advantage? Brenda from Bristol - and indeed the entire 2017 election - would have an answer to that.

And even if re-elected, then unless the Tories and Reform are both at each others' throats and failing to land blows on Labour, then Labour will lose seats. No matter how you spin it, that will take the shine off any victory and check Labour's momentum - as well as potentially costing some ministers their seats.

Just bloody govern and forget about the games. Governments have many structural advantages in the political game. If the country is in a decent, improved, shape come 2028/9, and Labour runs a capable campaign, they will win.

Sunil_Prasannan said:

If we posted "Je suis Charlie", would that be in breach of the OSA?

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Theuniondivvie said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Starmer’s £80k renovation of ‘Tory blue’ Downing Street TV room
The prime minister faces criticism over the refurbishment, after Labour condemned Boris Johnson’s spending on the room as a ‘vanity project’
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/starmer-80k-renovation-tory-blue-downing-street-gqj8hb2pv (£££)

Keir Starmer is a lawyer, not a politician. Labour staffers will be anxiously checking he's not bought a duck house.

A strange construction, 'a refurbishment worth up to £80,000'.
Presumably they got the tv room surveyors in to do a valuation.

My guess is the room was being refurbished anyway and the Times has priced up some Farrow & Ball paint and a few rolls of posh wallpaper.

Stocky said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Airport lounges and airline frequent flyer programs are the most successful weaponisation of status anxiety in human history, with private schools a distant second. The lengths people will go to to drink mid-price wine surrounded by other smug boomers in their garden centre outfits is quite astonishing.

It's a nouveau riche thing isn't it?

People with actual class don't bother about this sort of thing.

Sandpit said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

I still find it amazing how many people sit all day in an office working entirely on a laptop at their desk.

If a half-decent screen and keyboard costs £250, how long does it take before the productivity improvements are positive for someone on say £80k/year? I reckon no longer than a fortnight.

My company accountant used to work for an audit firm so was in a different customer’s office every week. Now she sits in a nice office - with a Surface tab with its 11” screen and flimsy keyboard, says she’s used to it and just likes it that way! :shrug:

Leon said:

Omnium said:

Leon said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

If we posted "Je suis Charlie", would that be in breach of the OSA?

Probably. For someone

The more I think about it the more I reckon PB cannot survive the OSA

Someone is bound to say something “distressing” and even if they never intended distress and even if it’s factual that’s no defined - AFAICS

And the fines are potentially enormous

Who will risk that?

Whilst there is clearly some risk on PB, surely the biggest risks come from saying things on the likes of X? Here there are perhaps a few hundred readers (at best) whereas if you posted something unintentional but unfortunate on X it could be read by millions.

X can probably afford the fines. Or it will ignore the fines and simply stop operating in Britain

PB can’t do either

mwadams said:

david_herdson said:

On topic, I fully agree with TSE. This is Westminster Wonkery at its finest (ie worst).

A government elected with a landslide majority has no cause to go to the country after two years. On what basis? Delivery? There won't be any because the only actual decisions the govt has taken so far have been to piss things off and make them (temporarily, one assumes Labour expects), worse. Mandate? It already has that, unless it wants to rat on a pledge. Preventative, before things really go down the pan? Hardly an inspiring message. To take advantage? Brenda from Bristol - and indeed the entire 2017 election - would have an answer to that.

And even if re-elected, then unless the Tories and Reform are both at each others' throats and failing to land blows on Labour, then Labour will lose seats. No matter how you spin it, that will take the shine off any victory and check Labour's momentum - as well as potentially costing some ministers their seats.

Just bloody govern and forget about the games. Governments have many structural advantages in the political game. If the country is in a decent, improved, shape come 2028/9, and Labour runs a capable campaign, they will win.

We haven't had a government that "just" governed for many years. I suspect that this is partly because of the long periods in opposition before a new government was formed. Non-governing habits are formed that are difficult to shake off.

About the only thing I can praise Blair for is his good fortune in coming into government at a time of relative stability and choosing to (basically) carry on a continuity Major administration, domestically.

Given both Tory and Labour are suffering, I wonder if Westminster has collectively forgotten how to do it?

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Eabhal said:

Sandpit said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

I still find it amazing how many people sit all day in an office working entirely on a laptop at their desk.

If a half-decent screen and keyboard costs £250, how long does it take before the productivity improvements are positive for someone on say £80k/year? I reckon no longer than a fortnight.

My company accountant used to work for an audit firm so was in a different customer’s office every week. Now she sits in a nice office - with a Surface tab with its 11” screen and flimsy keyboard, says she’s used to it and just likes it that way! :shrug:

Agree. But I also think this focus on high earners is misplaced - your £80k manager/exec probably doesn't need a 32inch 4K screen and MX keys in the same way a £30k bookkeeper does.

Enable the excel grunts to get on with it.

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Nice

Flood cooling CNC, with automated tool selection doesn’t get enough love. Everyone talks about 3D printing, but advanced CNC was a whole revolution, by itself.

Mercedes F1 machine shop walk around. 24 CNCs in there, machine porn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CMSKjesRs

SandyRentool said:

Eabhal said:

Sandpit said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

I still find it amazing how many people sit all day in an office working entirely on a laptop at their desk.

If a half-decent screen and keyboard costs £250, how long does it take before the productivity improvements are positive for someone on say £80k/year? I reckon no longer than a fortnight.

My company accountant used to work for an audit firm so was in a different customer’s office every week. Now she sits in a nice office - with a Surface tab with its 11” screen and flimsy keyboard, says she’s used to it and just likes it that way! :shrug:

Agree. But I also think this focus on high earners is misplaced - your £80k manager/exec probably doesn't need a 32inch 4K screen and MX keys in the same way a £30k bookkeeper does.

Enable the excel grunts to get on with it.

Whenever I work with multiple screens I spend half my time trying to figure out where my cursor has gone.

Foss said:

Omnium said:

Leon said:

Omnium said:

Leon said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

If we posted "Je suis Charlie", would that be in breach of the OSA?

Probably. For someone

The more I think about it the more I reckon PB cannot survive the OSA

Someone is bound to say something “distressing” and even if they never intended distress and even if it’s factual that’s no defined - AFAICS

And the fines are potentially enormous

Who will risk that?

Whilst there is clearly some risk on PB, surely the biggest risks come from saying things on the likes of X? Here there are perhaps a few hundred readers (at best) whereas if you posted something unintentional but unfortunate on X it could be read by millions.

X can probably afford the fines. Or it will ignore the fines and simply stop operating in Britain

PB can’t do either

Yes, but there is a pretty modest risk of causing real distress assuming that it's an accidentally unfortunate comment (I'm sure that happens sometimes!). However on the big sites there's no real way of controlling any wave of outrage that you might inadvertently provoke.

Let's hope this doesn't get put to the test though.

Wikipedia is an interesting one - it’s user-to-user content that, in spite of the editors ideological bias, has an almost pathological resistance to the removal of images of Mohammed in articles where it’s appropriate to show one.

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

SandyRentool said:

Eabhal said:

Sandpit said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

I still find it amazing how many people sit all day in an office working entirely on a laptop at their desk.

If a half-decent screen and keyboard costs £250, how long does it take before the productivity improvements are positive for someone on say £80k/year? I reckon no longer than a fortnight.

My company accountant used to work for an audit firm so was in a different customer’s office every week. Now she sits in a nice office - with a Surface tab with its 11” screen and flimsy keyboard, says she’s used to it and just likes it that way! :shrug:

Agree. But I also think this focus on high earners is misplaced - your £80k manager/exec probably doesn't need a 32inch 4K screen and MX keys in the same way a £30k bookkeeper does.

Enable the excel grunts to get on with it.

Whenever I work with multiple screens I spend half my time trying to figure out where my cursor has gone.

It’s actually cheaper to have one big screen now - you save on the stand/mount and you don’t need multiple graphics cards to drive it (yes, daisy chaining is a thing, but…)

And Windows 11 finally makes it relatively easy to drag windows into split boxes on a single large screen. One 36” 4k screen is probably better than 2x27” at this point, for a nice home setup anyway.

Pulpstar said:

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Nice

Flood cooling CNC, with automated tool selection doesn’t get enough love. Everyone talks about 3D printing, but advanced CNC was a whole revolution, by itself.

Mercedes F1 machine shop walk around. 24 CNCs in there, machine porn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CMSKjesRs

Blimy, best not show our workshop manager that he'll be off there on triple (or more) the pay lol.

MarqueeMark said:

algarkirk said:

TOPPING said:

That said, I don't see a huge bump in approval for this government because I believe there is an ideological, rather than pragmatic angle to their approach to government. They will enact policies (cf VAT on schools, lying to the farmers) which accord with their ideological principles and, to invoke a phrase from of our greatest leader, they will eventually run out of other people to tax.

Labour don't help themselves by unforced errors and bad narrative handling. But the big reasons why any UK government will find approval hard going from 2024-2029 is that there is a huge gap between the cost of providing really well what the state does through our taxes and taxpayers willingness to pay for it.

BTW on R4 Today Jenrick and Robinson between them managed to be abysmally awful. Toe curling stuff on both sides.

Tories deffo dodged a bullet by not electing Jenrick.

Sandpit said:

Pulpstar said:

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Nice

Flood cooling CNC, with automated tool selection doesn’t get enough love. Everyone talks about 3D printing, but advanced CNC was a whole revolution, by itself.

Mercedes F1 machine shop walk around. 24 CNCs in there, machine porn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CMSKjesRs

Blimy, best not show our workshop manager that he'll be off there on triple (or more) the pay lol.

Ha, that’s probably one of the best shops in the whole country.

There was an interview on one of the F1 channels with James Vowles, who went from Mercedes to Williams, and said what most shocked him about the move was that his new team were using 10-year-old CNCs in the machine shop, because they’d not had any capital budget for a few years.

The first thing he told the board he needed was some decent new equipment in the factory!

Selebian said:

Off-topic: Do any of our academics have a view on MDPI nowadays? Specifically 'Journal of Clinical Medicine'. Are they still seen as junk publishers? I've been sent a review request for a paper that is in my field and which is making, from the abstract, some extravagant claims - it seems a run of the mill analysis claiming rather more. I don't want to waste my time if the journal is going to just rubber stamp it anyway.

(I don't generally review for journals I don't know nowadays, but this article is very much in my area, so considering it).

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

Leon said:

Theuniondivvie said:

rkrkrk said:

TOPPING said:

It's easy to ask "does Starmer really want to be PM" or a variation thereof. Which I believe is to misunderestimate the thinking of a politician. Every, or most politicians want to rise as far as they can so as to be able to bring about the change they believe is necessary for the good of the country. Starmer is no different. He now has the Top Job in UK politics and I'm guessing he will hang on to it for as long as he is able to.

PMs are forced out, precious few walk away willingly.

I wonder which PM in modern times has made the best exit?

And much more importantly, what was their favourite airline?

Given that we’re no longer allowed to discuss anything that might upset anyone ever anywhere, especially thing thing and thing, you’d better get used to PB being the most tedious boozer in the world, full of entitled old gits discussing airline lounges and embittered old Nats comparing sporrans

MarqueeMark said:

algarkirk said:

TOPPING said:

That said, I don't see a huge bump in approval for this government because I believe there is an ideological, rather than pragmatic angle to their approach to government. They will enact policies (cf VAT on schools, lying to the farmers) which accord with their ideological principles and, to invoke a phrase from of our greatest leader, they will eventually run out of other people to tax.

Labour don't help themselves by unforced errors and bad narrative handling. But the big reasons why any UK government will find approval hard going from 2024-2029 is that there is a huge gap between the cost of providing really well what the state does through our taxes and taxpayers willingness to pay for it.

BTW on R4 Today Jenrick and Robinson between them managed to be abysmally awful. Toe curling stuff on both sides.

Tories deffo dodged a bullet by not electing Jenrick.

Theuniondivvie said:

MarqueeMark said:

algarkirk said:

TOPPING said:

That said, I don't see a huge bump in approval for this government because I believe there is an ideological, rather than pragmatic angle to their approach to government. They will enact policies (cf VAT on schools, lying to the farmers) which accord with their ideological principles and, to invoke a phrase from of our greatest leader, they will eventually run out of other people to tax.

Labour don't help themselves by unforced errors and bad narrative handling. But the big reasons why any UK government will find approval hard going from 2024-2029 is that there is a huge gap between the cost of providing really well what the state does through our taxes and taxpayers willingness to pay for it.

BTW on R4 Today Jenrick and Robinson between them managed to be abysmally awful. Toe curling stuff on both sides.

Tories deffo dodged a bullet by not electing Jenrick.

I thought exactly that while listening to him.
Shortly followed by that fkker's not going away, is he?
Whenever the next leadership election is, he'll be putting himself forward.

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Carnyx said:

Labour getting a bit muddled up north:

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24838022.scottish-labour-confirm-will-abstain-budget-vote/

'ANAS Sarwar has confirmed Scottish Labour will abstain on a vote on the Scottish Budget in an interview with the BBC.

It means the SNP should have the numbers to pass the Budget when it goes to a Holyrood vote before the end of February.

Sarwar further said that his party would only vote for the Budget if the Scottish Government “stopped pretending that this Budget lifts the two-child benefit cap”.

“As it currently stands, the two-child benefit cap is not lifted this year.

"If they do, we will support the Budget because we support lifting the two-child benefit cap,” he told Good Morning Scotland.'

And Graun feed:

'Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday morning Scottish Labour, which has seen its support in the polls plunge since November, would not obstruct the budget and might even support it:

"We, at this current stage, will abstain from this budget, because this budget is going to pass anyway. It has the votes of another political party, at least one of the opposition political parties, so we are not going to vote against this budget."

Labour is in a delicate position: the budget uses several billion pounds of extra spending provided by the UK Labour government, and will reverse the chancellor’s cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners in Scotland – a policy Sarwar supports'.

Theuniondivvie said:

Carnyx said:

Labour getting a bit muddled up north:

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24838022.scottish-labour-confirm-will-abstain-budget-vote/

'ANAS Sarwar has confirmed Scottish Labour will abstain on a vote on the Scottish Budget in an interview with the BBC.

It means the SNP should have the numbers to pass the Budget when it goes to a Holyrood vote before the end of February.

Sarwar further said that his party would only vote for the Budget if the Scottish Government “stopped pretending that this Budget lifts the two-child benefit cap”.

“As it currently stands, the two-child benefit cap is not lifted this year.

"If they do, we will support the Budget because we support lifting the two-child benefit cap,” he told Good Morning Scotland.'

And Graun feed:

'Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday morning Scottish Labour, which has seen its support in the polls plunge since November, would not obstruct the budget and might even support it:

"We, at this current stage, will abstain from this budget, because this budget is going to pass anyway. It has the votes of another political party, at least one of the opposition political parties, so we are not going to vote against this budget."

Labour is in a delicate position: the budget uses several billion pounds of extra spending provided by the UK Labour government, and will reverse the chancellor’s cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners in Scotland – a policy Sarwar supports'.

Narrator: Scottish Labour MPs voted against lifting the 2 child benefit cap.

Theuniondivvie said:

Carnyx said:

Labour getting a bit muddled up north:

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24838022.scottish-labour-confirm-will-abstain-budget-vote/

'ANAS Sarwar has confirmed Scottish Labour will abstain on a vote on the Scottish Budget in an interview with the BBC.

It means the SNP should have the numbers to pass the Budget when it goes to a Holyrood vote before the end of February.

Sarwar further said that his party would only vote for the Budget if the Scottish Government “stopped pretending that this Budget lifts the two-child benefit cap”.

“As it currently stands, the two-child benefit cap is not lifted this year.

"If they do, we will support the Budget because we support lifting the two-child benefit cap,” he told Good Morning Scotland.'

And Graun feed:

'Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday morning Scottish Labour, which has seen its support in the polls plunge since November, would not obstruct the budget and might even support it:

"We, at this current stage, will abstain from this budget, because this budget is going to pass anyway. It has the votes of another political party, at least one of the opposition political parties, so we are not going to vote against this budget."

Labour is in a delicate position: the budget uses several billion pounds of extra spending provided by the UK Labour government, and will reverse the chancellor’s cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners in Scotland – a policy Sarwar supports'.

Narrator: Scottish Labour MPs voted against lifting the 2 child benefit cap.

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

Sandpit said:

Pulpstar said:

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Nice

Flood cooling CNC, with automated tool selection doesn’t get enough love. Everyone talks about 3D printing, but advanced CNC was a whole revolution, by itself.

Mercedes F1 machine shop walk around. 24 CNCs in there, machine porn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CMSKjesRs

Blimy, best not show our workshop manager that he'll be off there on triple (or more) the pay lol.

Ha, that’s probably one of the best shops in the whole country.

There was an interview on one of the F1 channels with James Vowles, who went from Mercedes to Williams, and said what most shocked him about the move was that his new team were using 10-year-old CNCs in the machine shop, because they’d not had any capital budget for a few years.

The first thing he told the board he needed was some decent new equipment in the factory!

TheScreamingEagles said:

We had to remove over a dozen defamatory comments regarding the grooming story over the last few days.

That is the main reason why the grooming story is off limits for PB at the moment.

Selebian said:

Off-topic: Do any of our academics have a view on MDPI nowadays? Specifically 'Journal of Clinical Medicine'. Are they still seen as junk publishers? I've been sent a review request for a paper that is in my field and which is making, from the abstract, some extravagant claims - it seems a run of the mill analysis claiming rather more. I don't want to waste my time if the journal is going to just rubber stamp it anyway.

(I don't generally review for journals I don't know nowadays, but this article is very much in my area, so considering it).

Carnyx said:

Sandpit said:

Pulpstar said:

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Nice

Flood cooling CNC, with automated tool selection doesn’t get enough love. Everyone talks about 3D printing, but advanced CNC was a whole revolution, by itself.

Mercedes F1 machine shop walk around. 24 CNCs in there, machine porn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CMSKjesRs

Blimy, best not show our workshop manager that he'll be off there on triple (or more) the pay lol.

Ha, that’s probably one of the best shops in the whole country.

There was an interview on one of the F1 channels with James Vowles, who went from Mercedes to Williams, and said what most shocked him about the move was that his new team were using 10-year-old CNCs in the machine shop, because they’d not had any capital budget for a few years.

The first thing he told the board he needed was some decent new equipment in the factory!

Would those 10yo machines be of any use to anyone else? For how long?

Just thinking of the Marc Brunel block machinery - in use for 160 years and probably could have kept going if it weren't for the small matter of the RN not needing wooden blocks and sheaves any more ...

viewcode said:

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

This point - about research degenerating into looking at other research - is an explicit plot point in the Foundation series, and indicates a rotting civilisation. People think research is done at desks, and it just isn't.

Sandpit said:

Carnyx said:

Sandpit said:

Pulpstar said:

Sandpit said:

Malmesbury said:

Pulpstar said:

Eabhal said:

TimS said:

Eabhal said:

carnforth said:

Leon said:

The Brexiteers were right. The EU has fossilised European economies, strangled innovation, and its freedoms mean - inter alia - that the immigration madness of one country (hello Germany) is inflicted on all the others


The fact that the UK has totally fucked up Brexit and not seized its opportunities does not negate this truth. The brexiteers’ diagnosis of the EU was bang on

Even the seemingly far-fetched boom in manufacturing has appeared:



Opinions might vary on whether that is due to Brexit, I suppose. But still.

UK manufacturing is really interesting. Still a relatively large sector, and once you start speaking with people working in it you realise just how much advanced work is going on, often by people without formal qualifications working for local companies in their hometown

I was looking into some rather clever green tech for one of the charities I help out with and was to astonished to find it was made a mile away from where I went to school.

It's one sector where what's left is highly productive and automated, in contrast with most of our dominant services sector that's filled with low cost labour and under-investment. Not enough of it of course, but much of what's left is like drug-resistant bacteria, battered for decades by global headwinds so what survives is a particularly resistant strain.

Yes. This firm only employs about 30 people FTE, but had no qualms at all about spending £100,000s on a new bit of kit to polish something a bit better. You can't imagine your typical services firm doing that kind of investment.

And it's extremely telling that most offices I go into have kit that is significantly worse than my WFH set up, and almost all my colleagues bring their own keyboards/mice in. It's pathetic.

People moan about the government not doing enough investment, but it's a culture that persists throughout the economy outside the top consultancies.

Here's a vid of our 5 axis CNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hQnC3RHDk

Nice

Flood cooling CNC, with automated tool selection doesn’t get enough love. Everyone talks about 3D printing, but advanced CNC was a whole revolution, by itself.

Mercedes F1 machine shop walk around. 24 CNCs in there, machine porn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CMSKjesRs

Blimy, best not show our workshop manager that he'll be off there on triple (or more) the pay lol.

Ha, that’s probably one of the best shops in the whole country.

There was an interview on one of the F1 channels with James Vowles, who went from Mercedes to Williams, and said what most shocked him about the move was that his new team were using 10-year-old CNCs in the machine shop, because they’d not had any capital budget for a few years.

The first thing he told the board he needed was some decent new equipment in the factory!

Would those 10yo machines be of any use to anyone else? For how long?

Just thinking of the Marc Brunel block machinery - in use for 160 years and probably could have kept going if it weren't for the small matter of the RN not needing wooden blocks and sheaves any more ...

I imagine that anyone who doesn’t need a five-axis liquid-cooled 100-tool micron-resolution fire-and-forget monster costing several million, which let’s face it is going to be 99.99% of us who aren’t making prototype racecars or engines for aeroplanes, could probably find a good home for an ‘old’ one in their garage!

The decent models will run for decades, so long as you can get spare parts and can find software to write the appropriate file format for any new projects.

Carnyx said:

viewcode said:

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

This point - about research degenerating into looking at other research - is an explicit plot point in the Foundation series, and indicates a rotting civilisation. People think research is done at desks, and it just isn't.

Meta-analysis of clinical trials is a well-known discipline - notably useful in picking out which trials are valid and which are e.g. too small to be statistically useful.

rottenborough said:

‪Jim Pickard‬ ‪@pickardje.bsky.social‬
·
15m
Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, is considering running for leadership of Canada’s Liberal party after prime minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation this week

viewcode said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Leon said:

What strikes me about modern Asia is that modern Asians are simply used to what they get. Excellent food, clean streets, hi tech everything, safe cities, almost zero crime, no terrorism, exemplary infrastructure, noodle chefs on demand, 5G networks in the middle of forests

Their quality of life is now in many ways superior to that of Europeans and it’s just expected

Clean streets? In India???

I think Brits and Americans have different popular definitions of "Asia". I wouldn't define India as "Asia", but some people do.

Carnyx said:

viewcode said:

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

This point - about research degenerating into looking at other research - is an explicit plot point in the Foundation series, and indicates a rotting civilisation. People think research is done at desks, and it just isn't.

Meta-analysis of clinical trials is a well-known discipline - notably useful in picking out which trials are valid and which are e.g. too small to be statistically useful.

Selebian said:

Carnyx said:

viewcode said:

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

This point - about research degenerating into looking at other research - is an explicit plot point in the Foundation series, and indicates a rotting civilisation. People think research is done at desks, and it just isn't.

Meta-analysis of clinical trials is a well-known discipline - notably useful in picking out which trials are valid and which are e.g. too small to be statistically useful.

Indeed. Systematic reviews, particularly with meta-analyses, have an important role. Unfortunately, they're also low hanging fruit in some areas for people looking for papers that can be done on the cheap and can be done badly - particularly, but not always - when a meta analysis is not possible or, of course, when all the source papers are garbage.

Those with proper standards, like the Cochrane reviews, are very useful.

another_richard said:

viewcode said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Leon said:

What strikes me about modern Asia is that modern Asians are simply used to what they get. Excellent food, clean streets, hi tech everything, safe cities, almost zero crime, no terrorism, exemplary infrastructure, noodle chefs on demand, 5G networks in the middle of forests

Their quality of life is now in many ways superior to that of Europeans and it’s just expected

Clean streets? In India???

I think Brits and Americans have different popular definitions of "Asia". I wouldn't define India as "Asia", but some people do.

Guide for Americans:

West Asia / Middle East = Oil, Muslims
South Asia / Subcontinent = Cricket, Hindus
East Asia / Far East = Electronics, Buddhists
North Asia / Siberia = Unpopulated Russia

MaxPB said:

rottenborough said:

‪Jim Pickard‬ ‪@pickardje.bsky.social‬
·
15m
Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, is considering running for leadership of Canada’s Liberal party after prime minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation this week

Yes, that will help the Liberal party against Polievre. They'll go from taking a hiding to it being existential if Mark Carney wins. This is the same as someone watching the West Wing and suggesting that President Bartlett could actually win in America today. Mark Carney is the epitome of the Davos "citizen of nowhere". Polievre will make mincemeat of him.

Carnyx said:

Selebian said:

Carnyx said:

viewcode said:

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

This point - about research degenerating into looking at other research - is an explicit plot point in the Foundation series, and indicates a rotting civilisation. People think research is done at desks, and it just isn't.

Meta-analysis of clinical trials is a well-known discipline - notably useful in picking out which trials are valid and which are e.g. too small to be statistically useful.

Indeed. Systematic reviews, particularly with meta-analyses, have an important role. Unfortunately, they're also low hanging fruit in some areas for people looking for papers that can be done on the cheap and can be done badly - particularly, but not always - when a meta analysis is not possible or, of course, when all the source papers are garbage.

Those with proper standards, like the Cochrane reviews, are very useful.

The Cochranes are precisely what I had in mind. But you're right about the shitey end of the research stick.

Selebian said:

viewcode said:

Selebian said:

david_herdson said:

MaxPB said:

Pulpstar said:

MaxPB said:

The Tories are set to table an amendment to the children's wellbeing bill and Labour will be forced to oppose it which I think gets the Tories exactly what they want on the scandal. Labour opposing a statutory national inquiry on the subject with the Tories in favour of one, on the record. I think by the time the vote comes around Labour will have realised how awful the optics will be for them and they'll end up voting for it or something similar from the Labour benches.

Starmer has got absolutely zero political instincts, if he had he'd already be ahead of this and have called the inquiry on his own terms. This will now get forced on him at much less favourable terms because there's just too much public anger about it to ignore now.

Maggie Oliver excoriating on the radio this morning regarding Starmer.

Prof Alexis Jay basically admitting that the current wave of public anger has forced Labour into accepting the recommendations of her limited inquiry. She spared the governments blushes by remaining silent on whether she thought they'd have done it without being backed into this corner but it was very telling.

Having it on record that Labour opposed it and the Tories in favour will be, IMO, terminal for Labour in red wall seats. Reform will sweep the board against the party that refused to hold a full national inquiry about the safety of their daughters and voted against it. Every single Labour MP that votes against the Tory amendment will get barraged with it in the election campaign.

What exactly does anyone expect to come out of a national inquiry that has not already come out?

Spending several more years hearing the same evidence - and renewing the trauma for those involved, incidentally - while inevitably delaying taking action because why implement recommendations from existing reports when the national inquiry might say something different? - is not just wasteful but shameful.

We know what we need to know. Collate the existing recommendations, scale them up as necessary and implement them.

So, in research, we do the same shit over and over (well, different teams do the same shit over and over). Then we* collect up the results of all that shit and collate it all into a systematic review. People do this over and over. Then we collate those reviews into an umbrella review. Increasingly people are doing that over and over. The current frontier of research is coming up with a name for a review of a collection of umbrella reviews. I'm pushing for 'gazebo review'

Maybe we should do the same with independent inquiries

*happily I mostly avoid reviews - I've only first-authored one.

This point - about research degenerating into looking at other research - is an explicit plot point in the Foundation series, and indicates a rotting civilisation. People think research is done at desks, and it just isn't.

Um... my research is done at a desk

OldKingCole said:

kinabalu said:

GE in 27? Can't see that. The sense I'm getting is of the toddler in the back of the car chirping "when are we there? when are we there?" before we've even made the motorway. I think people should relax a bit more into the reality of several years, and likely a decade, of Labour government. Easy for me to say, I know, as a supporter of it, but I think it's a good approach for Tories and far righters too.

IIRC something like that was what we all felt in 2010; there was a Coalition Government with a solid majority, and while there were odd bumps on the road, notably Chris Huhne, we all expected it to last until 2015.