Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue...
Rolls off the keyboard easily, but is it true? In terms of criminality for example?
There are facts and there are perceptions and there's clearly a perception illegal migrants care a source of criminality. Numerically, there are far more people arriving legally than illegally but the fixation has been on those arriving on Dungeness Beach in dinghies rather than those coming in from, for example, the Indian Sub Continent,to Heathrow.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue...
Rolls off the keyboard easily, but is it true? In terms of criminality for example?
It depends who you mean. People seeking asylum are not illegal immigrants. They have legally sought asylum. Illegal immigrants are mostly visa overstayers. Both are a small proportion of total immigration. Most studies show crime among migrants in general is similar to the host population or lower.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Pint of what ?
Difficult to properly judge the price without knowing what its for.
@MZanona NEW DETAILS about Stefanik's nomination being withdrawn:
In his convos with ppl today, Trump expressed frustration w/ Mike Waltz, per multiple sources.
The frustration is two-fold: Trump not only angry about group chat-gate, but ALSO annoyed that the race to replace Waltz in Florida is now tighter than it should be for GOP.
Rs confident they'll win, but Trump still doesn't like the optics/narrative.
It all has Trump spooked about the prospect of yet another special election for Stefanik's seat, even as NRCC says: “We’d win this seat in a special election and we’ll win it in a general election."
BOTTOM LINE: Trump realizing how much of a headache it was to pull ppl from House for his admin... exactly as he was warned.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Pint of what ?
Difficult to properly judge the price without knowing what its for.
Vodka and gin are about the same price by the pint. I highly doubt Cookie consumes anything else, so your question is moot.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Pint of what ?
Difficult to properly judge the price without knowing what its for.
I really really hope, for the sake of the site, that is Hendricks gin or maybe liquid Morphine Sulphate
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
For those who enjoy the misuse of the word literally as much as me: a woman at an adjacent table is telling a long and involved story about being allergic to lavender, and a reaction to some sort of cosmetic: 'My face was literally on fire. I was literally burnt to a cinder'.
They’ll never accept it, but everyone who cast a vote for Donald Trump did real, generations-long damage to the United States and the west in exchange for essentially nothing of value.
Meanwhile, they’ll never accept it, but everyone who cast a vote for BREXIT did real, generations-long damage to the United Kingdom in exchange for essentially nothing of value.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Pint of what ?
Difficult to properly judge the price without knowing what its for.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
There is a very decent sit-in chippy who also sell 'tablet ice-cream' at Tyndrum. I think it changed hands sometime during the past few years so can't say it's still as good as it was. But used to be cracking. And what's not to love about young children high as kites on deep-fried food and freebased fudge?
Kilchurn Castle is quite dramatic and easy to get to. There is also a little slip-road off the A82 at Glencoe that takes you down to Loch Etive. Quite magical spot and the water is clear as crystal to dip your toes in.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
@MZanona NEW DETAILS about Stefanik's nomination being withdrawn:
In his convos with ppl today, Trump expressed frustration w/ Mike Waltz, per multiple sources.
The frustration is two-fold: Trump not only angry about group chat-gate, but ALSO annoyed that the race to replace Waltz in Florida is now tighter than it should be for GOP.
Rs confident they'll win, but Trump still doesn't like the optics/narrative.
It all has Trump spooked about the prospect of yet another special election for Stefanik's seat, even as NRCC says: “We’d win this seat in a special election and we’ll win it in a general election."
BOTTOM LINE: Trump realizing how much of a headache it was to pull ppl from House for his admin... exactly as he was warned.
That dramatically reduces the chances that the Dems take the House before the midterms. (Unless, of course, Waltz's district were to flip, which would be extraordinary.)
@MZanona NEW DETAILS about Stefanik's nomination being withdrawn:
In his convos with ppl today, Trump expressed frustration w/ Mike Waltz, per multiple sources.
The frustration is two-fold: Trump not only angry about group chat-gate, but ALSO annoyed that the race to replace Waltz in Florida is now tighter than it should be for GOP.
Rs confident they'll win, but Trump still doesn't like the optics/narrative.
It all has Trump spooked about the prospect of yet another special election for Stefanik's seat, even as NRCC says: “We’d win this seat in a special election and we’ll win it in a general election."
BOTTOM LINE: Trump realizing how much of a headache it was to pull ppl from House for his admin... exactly as he was warned.
That dramatically reduces the chances that the Dems take the House before the midterms. (Unless, of course, Waltz's district were to flip, which would be extraordinary.)
Presumably all the people warning about Trump becoming a fascist dictator will stand down after realising that he respects normal electoral politics?
@MZanona NEW DETAILS about Stefanik's nomination being withdrawn:
In his convos with ppl today, Trump expressed frustration w/ Mike Waltz, per multiple sources.
The frustration is two-fold: Trump not only angry about group chat-gate, but ALSO annoyed that the race to replace Waltz in Florida is now tighter than it should be for GOP.
Rs confident they'll win, but Trump still doesn't like the optics/narrative.
It all has Trump spooked about the prospect of yet another special election for Stefanik's seat, even as NRCC says: “We’d win this seat in a special election and we’ll win it in a general election."
BOTTOM LINE: Trump realizing how much of a headache it was to pull ppl from House for his admin... exactly as he was warned.
That dramatically reduces the chances that the Dems take the House before the midterms. (Unless, of course, Waltz's district were to flip, which would be extraordinary.)
Presumably all the people warning about Trump becoming a fascist dictator will stand down after realising that he respects normal electoral politics?
He proved he doesn't respect normal electoral politics in 2020.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
It is tricky
So why are you spending your time looking for random nobodies on twatter who are criticizing some aspect of the UK government instead of doing those luxury things ?
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
There is a very decent sit-in chippy who also sell 'tablet ice-cream' at Tyndrum. I think it changed hands sometime during the past few years so can't say it's still as good as it was. But used to be cracking. And what's not to love about young children high as kites on deep-fried food and freebased fudge?
Kilchurn Castle is quite dramatic and easy to get to. There is also a little slip-road off the A82 at Glencoe that takes you down to Loch Etive. Quite magical spot and the water is clear as crystal to dip your toes in.
I second this. The Ardnamurchan is also something else
Drive right to the end and then look at "the small Isles". One of the greatest views in the world
On my recent Uruguayan trip I did a wine tasting with a young Scottish couple - about 30? - who were taking "a few months off" to travel around Latin America. From Costa Rica all the way down to Patagonia. They didn't come across as posh but they must be, to spend so much time and money travelling in high style
Anyway we had a blast, talking everything from rugby to politics to movies and the like, as we all got sloshed on excellent Tannat
But what surprised me was how little of Scotland they had seen, just the east coast and Edinburgh. And they live in Scotland!
When I told them the West Coast and the Hebrides are one of the most remarkably, poetically beautiful places on earth they looked mildly bewildered, if flattered. She'd never been and he'd only been to Oban or whatever. Just goes to show....
What it shows I am not sure, but it definitely shows something
For those who enjoy the misuse of the word literally as much as me: a woman at an adjacent table is telling a long and involved story about being allergic to lavender, and a reaction to some sort of cosmetic: 'My face was literally on fire. I was literally burnt to a cinder'.
For those who enjoy the misuse of the word literally as much as me: a woman at an adjacent table is telling a long and involved story about being allergic to lavender, and a reaction to some sort of cosmetic: 'My face was literally on fire. I was literally burnt to a cinder'.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue...
Rolls off the keyboard easily, but is it true? In terms of criminality for example?
It depends who you mean. People seeking asylum are not illegal immigrants. They have legally sought asylum. Illegal immigrants are mostly visa overstayers. Both are a small proportion of total immigration. Most studies show crime among migrants in general is similar to the host population or lower.
I'm too drunk to untangle the various kinds of dissembling in that paragraph, but I don't think it's visa overstaying hindu grannies in Leicester doing this:
Waltz's deputy national security adviser Alex Wong has been taking fire from staunch Trump supporters and conservative media over the Signal incident, but while he was a participant in the conversation he wasn't involved in setting up the chat, sources told me. It was Waltz who added a journalist to the Signal chain.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
It is tricky
So why are you spending your time looking for random nobodies on twatter who are criticizing some aspect of the UK government instead of doing those luxury things ?
Coz I like kicking the shit out of this Labour government, because they are genuinely awful and deserve it?
And, clearly, the UK govt DOES care about social media or they wouldn't use it so much. And in this case they've had a trainwreck
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue...
Rolls off the keyboard easily, but is it true? In terms of criminality for example?
It depends who you mean. People seeking asylum are not illegal immigrants. They have legally sought asylum. Illegal immigrants are mostly visa overstayers. Both are a small proportion of total immigration. Most studies show crime among migrants in general is similar to the host population or lower.
I'm too drunk to untangle the various kinds of dissembling in that paragraph, but I don't think it's visa overstaying hindu grannies in Leicester doing this:
Quite so
When will females in Britain swing hard right, in the face of undeniable evidence like this? It must eventually happen
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Pint of what ?
Difficult to properly judge the price without knowing what its for.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
It is tricky
If you're going anywhere near Beppu there is (or at least was) a largely unknown onsen deep in the wooded hills above the town. It is/was lovingly maintained by the locals (when we were there one of the pools had been drained and was being vigorously cleaned by a very friendly chap, though his bits were swinging about rather alarmingly). It's a magical insight below the surface of often impenetrable Japanese culture, not least because it is one of the few mixed gender onsens I'm aware of.
ETA: it's also stunningly beautiful and, for want of a better term, oozes noom.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
It is tricky
If you're going anywhere near Beppu there is (or at least was) a largely unknown onsen deep in the wooded hills above the town. It is/was lovingly maintained by the locals (when we were there one of the pools had been drained and was being vigorously cleaned by a very friendly chap, though his bits were swinging about rather alarmingly). It's a magical insight below the surface of often impenetrable Japanese culture, not least because it is one of the few mixed gender onsens I'm aware of.
ETA: it's also stunningly beautiful and, for want of a better term, oozes noom.
Noom is the word!
Thankyou. A mixed gender onsen sounds fun and also alarming. I shall investigate
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current and former U.S. military pilots expressed bewilderment after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information in an unsecured group chat.
“If you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
It is tricky
So why are you spending your time looking for random nobodies on twatter who are criticizing some aspect of the UK government instead of doing those luxury things ?
Coz I like kicking the shit out of this Labour government, because they are genuinely awful and deserve it?
And, clearly, the UK govt DOES care about social media or they wouldn't use it so much. And in this case they've had a trainwreck
You voted Labour knowing full well what a Labour government would be like.
IMO they're moderately mediocre as UK governments tend to be.
Sadly I don't expect much chance of a better alternative - certainly not from Farage's rabble of malcontents.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
Lots of great ideas but your reference to the Knoydart pub made me laugh. When last I was there there was a rival 'pub' set up by the locals with some casks and taps under a tarpaulin in protest at the actions of the ?Dutch? landlord (only opening in the peak season iirc).
Hmmm...now that I type that out I genuinely can't recall whether I was actually in Knoydart when that happened, or just read about it once I'd returned home. False memories are fascinating.
Anyway, many thanks I'll peruse yours and others' suggestions at leisure.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
All good recommendations, but I demur on Ardnamurchan. Google maps says it is 1 hour 50 mins drive from Ft William
AND WHAT A DRIVE IT WILL BE
You go through Strontian....
A perfect day out for a family, I'd say, if you include LOTS of stops for things, and the weather is at least reasonably kind. A proper adventure. And the feeling you get at Sanna at the end of the road. Wow
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
Glencoe Mountain chairlift - gets you halfway up a Munro for an amazing view of Rannoch Moor, and you can watch the mountain bikers crash horribly. Also available at Nevis Range.
Dan Vasc @danvasc2 I'm Brazilian and my government is retarded, but holy shit you people
15.5K Views
So you're spending your time looking for foreigners on twatter who are criticizing the UK government on something nobody gives a toss about ?
Either that or pointlessly shouting about politics at people I've never met, on here. You?
I thought you were travelling the world.
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
I guess. I'm meant to go on a luxury trip to the tropical islands of southern Japan later this year, for free, or I could go to Swindon and chat to people in Lidl, and pay
It is tricky
If you're going anywhere near Beppu there is (or at least was) a largely unknown onsen deep in the wooded hills above the town. It is/was lovingly maintained by the locals (when we were there one of the pools had been drained and was being vigorously cleaned by a very friendly chap, though his bits were swinging about rather alarmingly). It's a magical insight below the surface of often impenetrable Japanese culture, not least because it is one of the few mixed gender onsens I'm aware of.
ETA: it's also stunningly beautiful and, for want of a better term, oozes noom.
Noom is the word!
Thankyou. A mixed gender onsen sounds fun and also alarming. I shall investigate
I believe (though may be romanticising) that we got there using a hand drawn map from a Beppu resident. Not sure I still have the map, unfortunately.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue...
Rolls off the keyboard easily, but is it true? In terms of criminality for example?
It depends who you mean. People seeking asylum are not illegal immigrants. They have legally sought asylum. Illegal immigrants are mostly visa overstayers. Both are a small proportion of total immigration. Most studies show crime among migrants in general is similar to the host population or lower.
I'm too drunk to untangle the various kinds of dissembling in that paragraph, but I don't think it's visa overstaying hindu grannies in Leicester doing this:
Quite so
When will females in Britain swing hard right, in the face of undeniable evidence like this? It must eventually happen
It won't be the first time a native population has absorbed hundreds of thousands of single young men of military age. Just ask the Incas.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
All good recommendations, but I demur on Ardnamurchan. Google maps says it is 1 hour 50 mins drive from Ft William
AND WHAT A DRIVE IT WILL BE
You go through Strontian....
A perfect day out for a family, I'd say, if you include LOTS of stops for things, and the weather is at least reasonably kind. A proper adventure. And the feeling you get at Sanna at the end of the road. Wow
Depends on the kids, I suppose. I'm an inexperienced in that regard. I saw a killer whale last time I was at Sanna, which I guess would go down well...
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
May I suggest a view from a very right perspective.
Immigrants from where ever are not bad...to start off the conversation
However encouraging immigration when the point is to provide companies with trained workers who will not train people here....and immigration being encouraged because companies want cheaper workers is bad
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
Lots of great ideas but your reference to the Knoydart pub made me laugh. When last I was there there was a rival 'pub' set up by the locals with some casks and taps under a tarpaulin in protest at the actions of the ?Dutch? landlord (only opening in the peak season iirc).
Hmmm...now that I type that out I genuinely can't recall whether I was actually in Knoydart when that happened, or just read about it once I'd returned home. False memories are fascinating.
Anyway, many thanks I'll peruse yours and others' suggestions at leisure.
I think he was Belgian. I met him in 2019 or 2020. A... character, now gone.
NEW: More Trump officials—beyond Waltz and Wiles—left their Venmo accounts exposed. All are tied to the same Signal chat that planned a U.S. strike in Yemen.
Payments include: • A Bush-Cheney reunion • cat-sitting • One eggplant
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
Well when a uk governement achieves that let me know
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Surprised to see PB in favour of joe public being able to carry Ninja swords.
I think pb is generally in favour of legislation being effective and against politicians posturing ludicrously.
Not how it's coming over to me. I'm picking up enthusiasm for carrying swords. I hope I'm wrong. That's not the forum I joined.
If it's of any reassurance, personally I would rather the people I pass in the street are unarmed.
Possession of offensive weapons has been illegal for centuries. With a bit of effort you can kill someone with a potato peeler or a credit card.
They say you can kill a man with a pencil.
If Leon wrote about Concorde with one, he could certainly bore me to death
I just checked your meagre history of commentary on here
This is what you wrote a few weeks ago:
"As a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes for over 20 years, my considered view of that letter, and indeed of the telegraph's coverage of the relevant part of the Budget generally..."
So, you're "a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes" WITH A MONUMENTALLY BORING PROSE STYLE
and you have the fucking temerity to accuse me of being boring????. You are the quintessential definition of dull. You are the anus of the weevil of yawn. You are the boringly used tampon removed from the dessicated twat of Homo Tediopithecus
NEW: More Trump officials—beyond Waltz and Wiles—left their Venmo accounts exposed. All are tied to the same Signal chat that planned a U.S. strike in Yemen.
Payments include: • A Bush-Cheney reunion • cat-sitting • One eggplant
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
Well when a uk governement achieves that let me know
Well I wont say who should get the credit but turning the slag heaps into country parks has made the environment of every mining area better.
While my life has certainly been improved by YouTube and wiki at no direct cost to myself.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Lismore is one of the hidden gems of Loch Linnie, but if you want to drive you’ll have to get the ferry from Oban, although my preference would be the short passenger ferry from Port Appin.
Check out walkhughlands.co.uk especially the short easy rated ones
Surprised to see PB in favour of joe public being able to carry Ninja swords.
I think pb is generally in favour of legislation being effective and against politicians posturing ludicrously.
Not how it's coming over to me. I'm picking up enthusiasm for carrying swords. I hope I'm wrong. That's not the forum I joined.
If it's of any reassurance, personally I would rather the people I pass in the street are unarmed.
Possession of offensive weapons has been illegal for centuries. With a bit of effort you can kill someone with a potato peeler or a credit card.
They say you can kill a man with a pencil.
If Leon wrote about Concorde with one, he could certainly bore me to death
I just checked your meagre history of commentary on here
This is what you wrote a few weeks ago:
"As a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes for over 20 years, my considered view of that letter, and indeed of the telegraph's coverage of the relevant part of the Budget generally..."
So, you're "a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes" WITH A MONUMENTALLY BORING PROSE STYLE
and you have the fucking temerity to accuse me of being boring????. You are the quintessential definition of dull. You are the anus of the weevil of yawn. You are the boringly used tampon removed from the dessicated twat of Homo Tediopithecus
omg
He was wrong to call you boring. Tedious would have been a better word.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current Bradford detective series Virdee is quite good, but let down by a sometimes ropy script.
The brilliant British New Wave classic "Room at the Top" (1958) was mostly filmed and set in Bradford too.
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Couldn't agree with you more, Foxy. And Mrs PtP would be delighted to hear that. Her Dad wrote the screenplay.
An excellent screenplay it is too, it gets the best out of the book, which itself is a postwar British classic.
When the Studio decided to go ahead with the film they asked Jack Clayton to direct it and sent him the script. He thought it was badly written though, and asked his friend, novelist Mordecai Richler, to rewrite it, which he did.
PB Brains Trust, Scottish contingent: I'm going to be up your way with kids (2 and 5) for a week or so in mid-April. Any particular recommendations to keep them entertained? We'll be centred around Fort William/Glencoe but happy to travel a couple of hours away. Thanks!
Interesting challenge. My usual recommendation of "run the Aonach Eagach" is probably inappropriate at that age. Something like Ardnamurchan is a long drive, FYI.
Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
Neptune's staircase is cool
Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
Castle Stalker
Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
All good recommendations, but I demur on Ardnamurchan. Google maps says it is 1 hour 50 mins drive from Ft William
AND WHAT A DRIVE IT WILL BE
You go through Strontian....
A perfect day out for a family, I'd say, if you include LOTS of stops for things, and the weather is at least reasonably kind. A proper adventure. And the feeling you get at Sanna at the end of the road. Wow
A remote journey is to go to Mull via the Lochaline to Fishnish ferry.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current Bradford detective series Virdee is quite good, but let down by a sometimes ropy script.
The brilliant British New Wave classic "Room at the Top" (1958) was mostly filmed and set in Bradford too.
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Couldn't agree with you more, Foxy. And Mrs PtP would be delighted to hear that. Her Dad wrote the screenplay.
An excellent screenplay it is too, it gets the best out of the book, which itself is a postwar British classic.
When the Studio decided to go ahead with the film they asked Jack Clayton to direct it and sent him the script. He thought it was badly written though, and asked his friend, novelist Mordecai Richler, to rewrite it, which he did.
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current Bradford detective series Virdee is quite good, but let down by a sometimes ropy script.
The brilliant British New Wave classic "Room at the Top" (1958) was mostly filmed and set in Bradford too.
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Couldn't agree with you more, Foxy. And Mrs PtP would be delighted to hear that. Her Dad wrote the screenplay.
An excellent screenplay it is too, it gets the best out of the book, which itself is a postwar British classic.
When the Studio decided to go ahead with the film they asked Jack Clayton to direct it and sent him the script. He thought it was badly written though, and asked his friend, novelist Mordecai Richler, to rewrite it, which he did.
Surprised to see PB in favour of joe public being able to carry Ninja swords.
I think pb is generally in favour of legislation being effective and against politicians posturing ludicrously.
Not how it's coming over to me. I'm picking up enthusiasm for carrying swords. I hope I'm wrong. That's not the forum I joined.
If it's of any reassurance, personally I would rather the people I pass in the street are unarmed.
Possession of offensive weapons has been illegal for centuries. With a bit of effort you can kill someone with a potato peeler or a credit card.
They say you can kill a man with a pencil.
If Leon wrote about Concorde with one, he could certainly bore me to death
I just checked your meagre history of commentary on here
This is what you wrote a few weeks ago:
"As a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes for over 20 years, my considered view of that letter, and indeed of the telegraph's coverage of the relevant part of the Budget generally..."
So, you're "a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes" WITH A MONUMENTALLY BORING PROSE STYLE
and you have the fucking temerity to accuse me of being boring????. You are the quintessential definition of dull. You are the anus of the weevil of yawn. You are the boringly used tampon removed from the dessicated twat of Homo Tediopithecus
omg
He was wrong to call you boring. Tedious would have been a better word.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
Well when a uk governement achieves that let me know
Well I wont say who should get the credit but turning the slag heaps into country parks has made the environment of every mining area better.
While my life has certainly been improved by YouTube and wiki at no direct cost to myself.
We have to move away from chasing GDP growth as the measure of national progress. What should replace it is hard to say but there are a whole range of objective measures many of which would in my opinion more accurately reflect the well-being and success of the nation. Health, education, healthy life-expectancy, housing, birth rate, crime levels, transport, all of these can be measured objectively and imo reflect well-being better than GDP.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
The answer is cutting the number of people on benefits by a combination of carrot and stick and then also investing in automation
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current Bradford detective series Virdee is quite good, but let down by a sometimes ropy script.
The brilliant British New Wave classic "Room at the Top" (1958) was mostly filmed and set in Bradford too.
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Couldn't agree with you more, Foxy. And Mrs PtP would be delighted to hear that. Her Dad wrote the screenplay.
An excellent screenplay it is too, it gets the best out of the book, which itself is a postwar British classic.
When the Studio decided to go ahead with the film they asked Jack Clayton to direct it and sent him the script. He thought it was badly written though, and asked his friend, novelist Mordecai Richler, to rewrite it, which he did.
He wrote great dialogue. Glad you appreciated it.
Your wife is the daughter of Mordecai Richler?!
You didn't know that?
Shocked.
Actually, I think maybe I did know that. But somehow mislayed it (life has been hectic)
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current Bradford detective series Virdee is quite good, but let down by a sometimes ropy script.
The brilliant British New Wave classic "Room at the Top" (1958) was mostly filmed and set in Bradford too.
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Couldn't agree with you more, Foxy. And Mrs PtP would be delighted to hear that. Her Dad wrote the screenplay.
An excellent screenplay it is too, it gets the best out of the book, which itself is a postwar British classic.
When the Studio decided to go ahead with the film they asked Jack Clayton to direct it and sent him the script. He thought it was badly written though, and asked his friend, novelist Mordecai Richler, to rewrite it, which he did.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
Sign up, string the Americans along, then renege. Russia style.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
The plunge will happen though. Boris retained gravity-defying ratings for way longer than he deserved, but then eventually reality caught up. Trouble is by then democracy will be over in the US and it’ll be too late.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
Sign up, string the Americans along, then renege. Russia style.
As many have said, ask Europe (plus the UK) and China to submit their own bids.
Spoiler: The alliance of free market, liberal, democracies wins.
Current and former U.S. military pilots expressed bewilderment after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information in an unsecured group chat.
“If you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.
Everyone is focused on Signal, but we've already seen Proton Mail, VK, and other stuff come up in the Trump circle. Right wing nuts seem to be convinced it's safer to use niche and non-US services. I suspect if an audit was done we would find a hell of a lot more of US government business being done in unofficial channels. And it's not even the apps and services that is the real problem, it's the private unmanaged devices and use of the public internet that makes them so vulnerable. What's happening is almost certain to be a lot worse than the things we know of.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
Well when a uk governement achieves that let me know
Well I wont say who should get the credit but turning the slag heaps into country parks has made the environment of every mining area better.
While my life has certainly been improved by YouTube and wiki at no direct cost to myself.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
Sign up, string the Americans along, then renege. Russia style.
Or delay, negotiate, delay, negotiate, delay.
Does anyone know how much of the military aid that Congress approved has still to be delivered ?
Once that has gone Trump loses much of his political leverage.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
You’re only pretending to be supportive of Trump for trolling purposes. Like Just WilliamGlenn. It just happens to suit the mood this evening.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
Perhaps the best British film of the Eighties was set and shot in Bradford.
Current Bradford detective series Virdee is quite good, but let down by a sometimes ropy script.
The brilliant British New Wave classic "Room at the Top" (1958) was mostly filmed and set in Bradford too.
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Couldn't agree with you more, Foxy. And Mrs PtP would be delighted to hear that. Her Dad wrote the screenplay.
An excellent screenplay it is too, it gets the best out of the book, which itself is a postwar British classic.
When the Studio decided to go ahead with the film they asked Jack Clayton to direct it and sent him the script. He thought it was badly written though, and asked his friend, novelist Mordecai Richler, to rewrite it, which he did.
He wrote great dialogue. Glad you appreciated it.
Your wife is the daughter of Mordecai Richler?!
You didn't know that?
Shocked.
Actually, I think maybe I did know that. But somehow mislayed it (life has been hectic)
Nonetheless, I'm impressed all over again
Noted with thanks.
I never met him. He died a few years before I met her. I love his books, and wish I had known him, but I doubt he would have been impressed by his new son-in-law.
Btw, his wife, Florence, used to live in Sandy Lane, near Jack Straws Castle. Is that the same place you had the party?
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
Sign up, string the Americans along, then renege. Russia style.
As many have said, ask Europe (plus the UK) and China to submit their own bids.
Spoiler: The alliance of free market, liberal, democracies wins.
Thing is it’s probably not that great a deal. I’m hopeful the ever-canny Ukrainians are channeling their inner Machiavellis
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
The ones which extract rare earths and secure them for America.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
Well when a uk governement achieves that let me know
Well I wont say who should get the credit but turning the slag heaps into country parks has made the environment of every mining area better.
While my life has certainly been improved by YouTube and wiki at no direct cost to myself.
We have to move away from chasing GDP growth as the measure of national progress. What should replace it is hard to say but there are a whole range of objective measures many of which would in my opinion more accurately reflect the well-being and success of the nation. Health, education, healthy life-expectancy, housing, birth rate, crime levels, transport, all of these can be measured objectively and imo reflect well-being better than GDP.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
It takes a while for people who are very invested to admit they were wrong, if indeed they ever do. See Brexit for an example.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
You’re only pretending to be supportive of Trump for trolling purposes. Like Just WilliamGlenn. It just happens to suit the mood this evening.
I am not supportive of Trump; I do see why he appeals to many Americans, and I very definitely see why a lot of Americans prefer him - for all his enormous flaws, even now - to the utter clownshow of lying, hypocritical Woke that is the Democrats
And that is the choice American voters had: it was him or Kamala Harris, who was only on the ballot because the Dems consciously lied about Biden's dementia to the entire country
Bradford is seriously cheap. Nice-ish city centre pub: four pound fifty for a pint and some nuts. Fairly quite mind - the group of women misusing the word 'literally' have been replaced by a very very affectionate couple who appear to have come out largely to snog and grope. I'm quite charmed - it feels very teenage: but they must be in their 40s. The only other people in sight are a mother/daughter combo getting steadliy and happily and quietly sloshed.
It'll be extra marital. They're usually the only ones who can be bothered.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
The ones which extract rare earths and secure them for America.
But, at least for now, the rare earth market is global and open. Now, Tesla may decide to go in for some vertical integration, but I doubt they want that. Mining is an expensive, capital eating, risky business. And most rare earths are not actually that rare.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
This is a bit like you inventing that people predicting a Trump victory were bullied off PB. I don't think anyone has denied Trump's magnetic qualities on here - indeed, it's part of the reason why Centrist Dads are in so much anguish.
Of much more concern though is the impotence of the American Left (or indeed centre and centre-right). Trump is smashing through red lines at pace and no one is remotely close to keeping up with him, to putting up any sort of resistance. Trump is unpopular, relative to his predecessors - but that doesn't matter much if it cannot crystalise into something tangible like an election result or serious protests.
Remember that your views are highly unusual. Centrist Dads are, well, central. The UK population detests Trump, Musk and Vance.
We'll be coming up from Arran (seeing friends) and are in a campervan so I think I'm building up to an Oban to Sanna (via Mull to keep kids entertained by the ferry trips) to Glencoe road trip. With lots of detours to e.g. Lismore and Loch Etive.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
The ones which extract rare earths and secure them for America.
The first thing you need to know about rare earths is that they're not rare.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
You’re only pretending to be supportive of Trump for trolling purposes. Like Just WilliamGlenn. It just happens to suit the mood this evening.
I am not supportive of Trump; I do see why he appeals to many Americans, and I very definitely see why a lot of Americans prefer him - for all his enormous flaws, even now - to the utter clownshow of lying, hypocritical Woke that is the Democrats
And that is the choice American voters had: it was him or Kamala Harris, who was only on the ballot because the Dems consciously lied about Biden's dementia to the entire country
Despite the Dems’ best efforts to hobble themselves in the last term, and despite their incumbency handicap, they weren’t far off in the popular vote or congress. So I expect and hope the prospect of Trump squatting like a toad over American politics will vanish as quickly as it did for Boris.
However, you are right that a lot of Americans - tens, maybe hundreds of millions of them - will continue to prefer him until the end. He slays their enemies. And their enemies are not the Russians, or the Chinese. Or even the EU. Their enemies are the libs.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
This is a bit like you inventing that people predicting a Trump victory were bullied off PB. I don't think anyone has denied Trump's magnetic qualities on here - indeed, it's part of the reason why Centrist Dads are in so much anguish.
Of much more concern though is the impotence of the American Left (or indeed centre and centre-right). Trump is smashing through red lines at pace and no one is remotely close to keeping up with him, to putting up any sort of resistance. Trump is unpopular, relative to his predecessors - but that doesn't matter much if it cannot crystalise into something tangible like an election result or serious protests.
Remember that your views are highly unusual. Centrist Dads are, well, central. The UK population detests Trump, Musk and Vance.
The shadow of the immigration issue continues to hang over political discourse here and elsewhere.
It seems Rishi Sunak's decision to call the election in late July was predicated, among other things, on the impact of a long summer of illegal migrant arrivals on the south coast and how that would look politically and electorally.
Keir Starmer now has the same problem with the Mail and Express doubtless anxious to compound the political misery with the truth of a failed or non-existant policy on illegal migration.
Yet we know, whatever the symbolism of illegal migration, it's legal migration that's the real issue and the problem stems from Boris Johnson trying to replace EU Freedom of Movement with an immigration policy predicated on keeping the economy growing via cheap imported labour.
If we can't grow the economy (seemingly) with cheap imported labour, how are we going to grow it without that labour? I'm sure there are plenty of answers but whatever Labour tries to do, they will always be outflanked by Reform ("one in, one out", a form of Net Zero if you like) or those actively now pushing a policy which used to be called voluntary repatriation but is now given the less threatening term of re-migration.
What is the answer? Chances are there isn't one - we don't have the capacity (seemingly) to prevent illegal immigration and we struggle with the potential economic impact of a much more restrictive legal migration policy.
There is growing the economy....and there is making people feel better off on the whole....the two are often not the same.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
Indeed.
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
Well when a uk governement achieves that let me know
Well I wont say who should get the credit but turning the slag heaps into country parks has made the environment of every mining area better.
While my life has certainly been improved by YouTube and wiki at no direct cost to myself.
We have to move away from chasing GDP growth as the measure of national progress. What should replace it is hard to say but there are a whole range of objective measures many of which would in my opinion more accurately reflect the well-being and success of the nation. Health, education, healthy life-expectancy, housing, birth rate, crime levels, transport, all of these can be measured objectively and imo reflect well-being better than GDP.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
The ones which extract rare earths and secure them for America.
The first thing you need to know about rare earths is that they're not rare.
On the topic of rare: a peak British moment this evening.
I was at a dinner in a place called the Union Club in Soho this evening. Very fun, with some interesting economist types talking about fiscal rules. Anyway, when I ordered the steak the waitress said “I must warn you that it comes medium rare”.
“I must warn you”. Here, in central London, in 2025, they *must warn* me that my steak won’t be cooked to a rubbery crisp.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
This is a bit like you inventing that people predicting a Trump victory were bullied off PB. I don't think anyone has denied Trump's magnetic qualities on here - indeed, it's part of the reason why Centrist Dads are in so much anguish.
Of much more concern though is the impotence of the American Left (or indeed centre and centre-right). Trump is smashing through red lines at pace and no one is remotely close to keeping up with him, to putting up any sort of resistance. Trump is unpopular, relative to his predecessors - but that doesn't matter much if it cannot crystalise into something tangible like an election result or serious protests.
Remember that your views are highly unusual. Centrist Dads are, well, central. The UK population detests Trump, Musk and Vance.
The UK population has an average IQ of 100
not quite it's 99.7, median is 99.1 which should tell you that there your random person on off the street is going to be of blow average intelligence but if you pick someone bright they may be slightly brighter than you would expect.
We'll be coming up from Arran (seeing friends) and are in a campervan so I think I'm building up to an Oban to Sanna (via Mull to keep kids entertained by the ferry trips) to Glencoe road trip. With lots of detours to e.g. Lismore and Loch Etive.
All weather dependent naturally.
Is Tobermoray still a thing with the kids? Or is that way too old as my boys used to watch it.
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
The ones which extract rare earths and secure them for America.
The first thing you need to know about rare earths is that they're not rare.
On the topic of rare: a peak British moment this evening.
I was at a dinner in a place called the Union Club in Soho this evening. Very fun, with some interesting economist types talking about fiscal rules. Anyway, when I ordered the steak the waitress said “I must warn you that it comes medium rare”.
“I must warn you”. Here, in central London, in 2025, they *must warn* me that my steak won’t be cooked to a rubbery crisp.
I once had to sign a disclaimer to accept the risks of ordering a steak medium-rare at a restaurant in Manchester. That was back in 2006-7ish, so not a recent 'health & safety gone mad' thing.
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
This is a bit like you inventing that people predicting a Trump victory were bullied off PB. I don't think anyone has denied Trump's magnetic qualities on here - indeed, it's part of the reason why Centrist Dads are in so much anguish.
Of much more concern though is the impotence of the American Left (or indeed centre and centre-right). Trump is smashing through red lines at pace and no one is remotely close to keeping up with him, to putting up any sort of resistance. Trump is unpopular, relative to his predecessors - but that doesn't matter much if it cannot crystalise into something tangible like an election result or serious protests.
Remember that your views are highly unusual. Centrist Dads are, well, central. The UK population detests Trump, Musk and Vance.
The UK population seems to care a good deal less about foreign affairs than PB's centrist Dad contingent, judging by the non-arrival of Starmer’s world statesman bounce and the imperviousness of Reform polling to 'being Trump arselickers'.
Probably worth a look at what actually matters to voters:
NEW: @FT obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
I have been saying for weeks now, the US Ukraine minerals deal will never be signed - the reason is US industry are not at all interested in it - and this development absolutely proves me right. Trump Whitehouse have gone totally cold on signing this.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Which bits of US industry are incredibly keen on drilling in Greenland?
The ones which extract rare earths and secure them for America.
The first thing you need to know about rare earths is that they're not rare.
On the topic of rare: a peak British moment this evening.
I was at a dinner in a place called the Union Club in Soho this evening. Very fun, with some interesting economist types talking about fiscal rules. Anyway, when I ordered the steak the waitress said “I must warn you that it comes medium rare”.
“I must warn you”. Here, in central London, in 2025, they *must warn* me that my steak won’t be cooked to a rubbery crisp.
I have a guilty pleasure of watching UK youtube cookery shows from regular domestic cooks. One of the things that fascinates me is the 'safe' temperature guides being taken as a minimum.
"Ok, these need to be 72C. Well, you can see on the meat thermometer - that's 150C - so we're good to go! Perfect!"
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Don't confuse the Centrist Dads with FACTS
This is a bit like you inventing that people predicting a Trump victory were bullied off PB. I don't think anyone has denied Trump's magnetic qualities on here - indeed, it's part of the reason why Centrist Dads are in so much anguish.
Of much more concern though is the impotence of the American Left (or indeed centre and centre-right). Trump is smashing through red lines at pace and no one is remotely close to keeping up with him, to putting up any sort of resistance. Trump is unpopular, relative to his predecessors - but that doesn't matter much if it cannot crystalise into something tangible like an election result or serious protests.
Remember that your views are highly unusual. Centrist Dads are, well, central. The UK population detests Trump, Musk and Vance.
The UK population seems to care a good deal less about foreign affairs than PB's centrist Dad contingent, judging by the non-arrival of Starmer’s world statesman bounce and the imperviousness of Reform polling to 'being Trump arselickers'.
Probably worth a look at what actually matters to voters:
Comments
https://x.com/sama/status/1905296867145154688
it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.
but our GPUs are melting.
we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long!
chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon.
Difficult to properly judge the price without knowing what its for.
NEW DETAILS about Stefanik's nomination being withdrawn:
In his convos with ppl today, Trump expressed frustration w/ Mike Waltz, per multiple sources.
The frustration is two-fold: Trump not only angry about group chat-gate, but ALSO annoyed that the race to replace Waltz in Florida is now tighter than it should be for GOP.
Rs confident they'll win, but Trump still doesn't like the optics/narrative.
It all has Trump spooked about the prospect of yet another special election for Stefanik's seat, even as NRCC says: “We’d win this seat in a special election and we’ll win it in a general election."
BOTTOM LINE: Trump realizing how much of a headache it was to pull ppl from House for his admin... exactly as he was warned.
https://x.com/MZanona/status/1905364430033944985
My ★★★★ review of Rita, Sue and Bob Too on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6jiKil
If you want to know what random people think about matters in this country wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to travel here as for example John Harris does ?
They’ll never accept it, but everyone who cast a vote for Donald Trump did real, generations-long damage to the United States and the west in exchange for essentially nothing of value.
https://bsky.app/profile/nycsouthpaw.bsky.social/post/3llf436mnec2d
Meanwhile, they’ll never accept it, but everyone who cast a vote for BREXIT did real, generations-long damage to the United Kingdom in exchange for essentially nothing of value.
https://www.nevisrange.co.uk/activities/mountain-gondola/
Great way of seeing some of the most spectacular scenery in the UK without being too much for the little ones.
The visitor centre in Glencoe is also very good with some excellent stories etc but they are maybe a little young for that. My kids loved it at 8-10.
Kilchurn Castle is quite dramatic and easy to get to. There is also a little slip-road off the A82 at Glencoe that takes you down to Loch Etive. Quite magical spot and the water is clear as crystal to dip your toes in.
It is tricky
That dramatically reduces the chances that the Dems take the House before the midterms. (Unless, of course, Waltz's district were to flip, which would be extraordinary.)
Drive right to the end and then look at "the small Isles". One of the greatest views in the world
On my recent Uruguayan trip I did a wine tasting with a young Scottish couple - about 30? - who were taking "a few months off" to travel around Latin America. From Costa Rica all the way down to Patagonia. They didn't come across as posh but they must be, to spend so much time and money travelling in high style
Anyway we had a blast, talking everything from rugby to politics to movies and the like, as we all got sloshed on excellent Tannat
But what surprised me was how little of Scotland they had seen, just the east coast and Edinburgh. And they live in Scotland!
When I told them the West Coast and the Hebrides are one of the most remarkably, poetically beautiful places on earth they looked mildly bewildered, if flattered. She'd never been and he'd only been to Oban or whatever. Just goes to show....
What it shows I am not sure, but it definitely shows something
@JenniferJJacobs
Waltz's deputy national security adviser Alex Wong has been taking fire from staunch Trump supporters and conservative media over the Signal incident, but while he was a participant in the conversation he wasn't involved in setting up the chat, sources told me. It was Waltz who added a journalist to the Signal chain.
https://x.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1905370617253077453
And, clearly, the UK govt DOES care about social media or they wouldn't use it so much. And in this case they've had a trainwreck
When will females in Britain swing hard right, in the face of undeniable evidence like this? It must eventually happen
Worth it.
ETA: it's also stunningly beautiful and, for want of a better term, oozes noom.
Putin proposes to introduce temporary administration in Ukraine under the auspices of the UN and several countries in order to hold elections.
https://x.com/KyivPost/status/1905367789612790125
- Get a standard ScotRail service to Mallaig and back.
- You could include a boat trip to Knoydart (famous pub)
- Eigg is a perfect bitesize island for kids. Drive + fun ferry for a day trip.
- Boat trip around Arisaig used to be a thing. Loads of seals and seabirds etc
- Neptune's staircase is cool
- Oban is much nicer for tourists than Ft William. Loads of ferries, ice cream, seafood. Kerrera has a cute ferry.
- Cycle around Lismore? Probably a bit young.
- Castle Stalker
- Watch Chamber of Secrets then go to Glenfinnan. The viaduct is an easy walk away. Fun wee museum at the train station.
- Loch Morar is spookily deep.
@maxhThankyou. A mixed gender onsen sounds fun and also alarming. I shall investigate
A great film, seething with working class anger and misogynistic male rage.
Current and former U.S. military pilots expressed bewilderment after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information in an unsecured group chat.
“If you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.
https://bsky.app/profile/nytimes.com/post/3lletxplqlc2e
IMO they're moderately mediocre as UK governments tend to be.
Sadly I don't expect much chance of a better alternative - certainly not from Farage's rabble of malcontents.
Hmmm...now that I type that out I genuinely can't recall whether I was actually in Knoydart when that happened, or just read about it once I'd returned home. False memories are fascinating.
Anyway, many thanks I'll peruse yours and others' suggestions at leisure.
GDP has grown....a lot of people haven't felt better off because they dont share in that gdp growth
AND WHAT A DRIVE IT WILL BE
You go through Strontian....
A perfect day out for a family, I'd say, if you include LOTS of stops for things, and the weather is at least reasonably kind. A proper adventure. And the feeling you get at Sanna at the end of the road. Wow
Does anyone know their address?
Immigrants from where ever are not bad...to start off the conversation
However encouraging immigration when the point is to provide companies with trained workers who will not train people here....and immigration being encouraged because companies want cheaper workers is bad
Though it also works the other way with some things - cleaner environment, new technology - improving the quality of life but not affecting GDP.
NEW: More Trump officials—beyond Waltz and Wiles—left their Venmo accounts exposed. All are tied to the same Signal chat that planned a U.S. strike in Yemen.
Payments include:
• A Bush-Cheney reunion
• cat-sitting
• One eggplant
https://bsky.app/profile/dmehro.bsky.social/post/3llfbtwqruk2y
This is what you wrote a few weeks ago:
"As a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes for over 20 years, my considered view of that letter, and indeed of the telegraph's coverage of the relevant part of the Budget generally..."
So, you're "a lawyer specialising in the taxation of pension schemes" WITH A MONUMENTALLY BORING PROSE STYLE
and you have the fucking temerity to accuse me of being boring????. You are the quintessential definition of dull. You are the anus of the weevil of yawn. You are the boringly used tampon removed from the dessicated twat of Homo Tediopithecus
omg
Bradford in particular was more prosperous
back then. It would be a good decade until the textile industry started on its precipitous decline.
While my life has certainly been improved by YouTube and wiki at no direct cost to myself.
Lismore is one of the hidden gems of Loch Linnie, but if you want to drive you’ll have to get the ferry from Oban, although my preference would be the short passenger ferry from Port Appin.
Check out walkhughlands.co.uk especially the short easy rated ones
He wrote great dialogue. Glad you appreciated it.
Shocked.
Nonetheless, I'm impressed all over again
https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1905297287221272735
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/03/25/cnns_enten_trump_is_more_popular_than_ever_americans_who_think_were_on_the_right_track_through_the_roof.html
Shows that despite the European backlash against Trump so far his popularity is holding up in America. Also suggest why the Dems have been going after Musk instead.
Trump will be drilling in Greenland before 2028 - the reason is US industry are totally excited by the prospect and lining up to be part of it.
Spoiler: The alliance of free market, liberal, democracies wins.
e g.http://www.fbcp.org.uk/uploads/1/9/5/1/19514847/fobcp_web_reclamation_june_2024_better.pdf
Does anyone know how much of the military aid that Congress approved has still to be delivered ?
Once that has gone Trump loses much of his political leverage.
I never met him. He died a few years before I met her. I love his books, and wish I had known him, but I doubt he would have been impressed by his new son-in-law.
Btw, his wife, Florence, used to live in Sandy Lane, near Jack Straws Castle. Is that the same place you had the party?
If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy's_remarks_at_the_University_of_Kansas#:~:text=Yet the gross national product,integrity of our public officials.
And that is the choice American voters had: it was him or Kamala Harris, who was only on the ballot because the Dems consciously lied about Biden's dementia to the entire country
Of much more concern though is the impotence of the American Left (or indeed centre and centre-right). Trump is smashing through red lines at pace and no one is remotely close to keeping up with him, to putting up any sort of resistance. Trump is unpopular, relative to his predecessors - but that doesn't matter much if it cannot crystalise into something tangible like an election result or serious protests.
Remember that your views are highly unusual. Centrist Dads are, well, central. The UK population detests Trump, Musk and Vance.
We'll be coming up from Arran (seeing friends) and are in a campervan so I think I'm building up to an Oban to Sanna (via Mull to keep kids entertained by the ferry trips) to Glencoe road trip. With lots of detours to e.g. Lismore and Loch Etive.
All weather dependent naturally.
However, you are right that a lot of Americans - tens, maybe hundreds of millions of them - will continue to prefer him until the end. He slays their enemies. And their enemies are not the Russians, or the Chinese. Or even the EU. Their enemies are the libs.
I was at a dinner in a place called the Union Club in Soho this evening. Very fun, with some interesting economist types talking about fiscal rules. Anyway, when I ordered the steak the waitress said “I must warn you that it comes medium rare”.
“I must warn you”. Here, in central London, in 2025, they *must warn* me that my steak won’t be cooked to a rubbery crisp.
Probably worth a look at what actually matters to voters:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/trackers/the-most-important-issues-facing-the-country?period=5yrs
"Ok, these need to be 72C. Well, you can see on the meat thermometer - that's 150C - so we're good to go! Perfect!"