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By-election betting – politicalbetting.com

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 54,897
    edited June 3
    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    Nah

    More fun to prank these people.

    At one company, an American lady turned up in HR and started a bizarre campaign to force people to sign up to a petition advocating a range of her pet causes.

    Sadly, she was removed while I was still contemplating a counter campaign of Loyalty Oaths, in the style of Catch 22.

    At another, my enthusiastic responses, parroting the words of the trainer on a “diversity” course, earned some comments from a colleague. A Russian, who had served in the USSR military, he commented that I would have made a good Political Officer’s stooge.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 18,088
    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,014

    After the nuclear bombers....

    The Crimean Bridge is in a state of emergency, after the Ukrainians detonated "the first" 1.1 tonnes of explosives underwater on the bridge supports.

    I doubt just one of those would do enough damage to bring the bridge down. It might seriously reduce the weight loading, though. As a comparison, the Dambuster's bouncing bombs were 3,000kg of explosive (Torpex).

    Also, there are two bridges: the road and the rail one. I'm still unsure whether they've got the rail bridge back up to full loading/capacity after the explosion a couple of years ago.

    The Ukrainians appear to have - God knows how - placed the explosives directly agains the bridge supports, which comprise steel bundles. The dams brought down by the Dambusters were massive stone structures. This Ukrainian strike can have been far more surgical. The explosive used may well have been Semtex - somewhat less powerful than Torpex, but better able to be shaped for maximum damage.
    Yes, but bridges can be notoriously weak, but also tremendously strong. Look at how the Remagen Bridge stood up for days despite a massive hammering in 1945. You can bring them down, but it requires very surgical strikes.

    Perhaps more importantly, Warmonitor is claiming that Ukraine hit *two* Beriev A-50 AWACS planes t'other day. They don't have many of those left, especially the modernised ones, and they're more than a little important.
    The A50's will be a huge win.

    But trapping the Russian army in Crimea and slamming them daily with precision strikes like a giant piñata as they whither in effectiveness whilst doing nothing to gain any other turf would be a monumental win for Ukraine.
  • scampi25scampi25 Posts: 154
    stodge said:

    Afternoon all :)

    Met for lunch with an ex-colleague with whom I shared many a laugh and joke in the office over a number of years.

    He is now squarely in the Reform camp - his line is not just the traditional "boats" but the notion the indigenous population (and, to be fair, never said "White", just British) were being disadvantaged in terms of welfare and housing provision by migrants "coming over here, taking every handout and living off our taxes".

    This is a refrain I've heard before - there was a scintilla of admiration for "the Romanians, they grew up in a Communist society and know how to play the system. They come over here and we're wide open and they take everything". On the assumption, that's everything to which they are entitled, yes. Perhaps the issue, as we saw with winter fuel payments, is British people aren't taking the things to which they are entitled either through ignorance or a mistaken sense of pride.

    The illegals have to go through a process but the legal migrants do all they need to do and ask for everything to which they are entitled. If they are considered British citizens and have entered the country legally and have been given permanent permission to stay, do they not have the right to certain benefits or to register with a GP?

    One reason for the Brexit vote was through the EU inflexibility on FOM and the alternative - Britain's non contributory benefit system. Most EU countries require contribution before benefits. Had the UK followed suit FOM would have been a much smaller problem. In short there should not be an automatic 'right to benefits' here - for anyone!
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 19,066
    Taz said:

    I’ve avoided a smart meter, not due to woke or any other shite like that, due to their reported unreliability.

    Are they okay now, is it worth getting one ?

    Been considering it.

    We've had no issues and its really useful to see daily/monthly and yearly usage.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,704

    After the nuclear bombers....

    The Crimean Bridge is in a state of emergency, after the Ukrainians detonated "the first" 1.1 tonnes of explosives underwater on the bridge supports.

    I doubt just one of those would do enough damage to bring the bridge down. It might seriously reduce the weight loading, though. As a comparison, the Dambuster's bouncing bombs were 3,000kg of explosive (Torpex).

    Also, there are two bridges: the road and the rail one. I'm still unsure whether they've got the rail bridge back up to full loading/capacity after the explosion a couple of years ago.

    The Ukrainians appear to have - God knows how - placed the explosives directly agains the bridge supports, which comprise steel bundles. The dams brought down by the Dambusters were massive stone structures. This Ukrainian strike can have been far more surgical. The explosive used may well have been Semtex - somewhat less powerful than Torpex, but better able to be shaped for maximum damage.
    Yes, but bridges can be notoriously weak, but also tremendously strong. Look at how the Remagen Bridge stood up for days despite a massive hammering in 1945. You can bring them down, but it requires very surgical strikes.

    Perhaps more importantly, Warmonitor is claiming that Ukraine hit *two* Beriev A-50 AWACS planes t'other day. They don't have many of those left, especially the modernised ones, and they're more than a little important.
    The A50's will be a huge win.

    But trapping the Russian army in Crimea and slamming them daily with precision strikes like a giant piñata as they whither in effectiveness whilst doing nothing to gain any other turf would be a monumental win for Ukraine.
    Russia evacuating Crimea to avoid that would also be a huge win for Ukraine
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,132

    stodge said:

    Afternoon all :)

    Met for lunch with an ex-colleague with whom I shared many a laugh and joke in the office over a number of years.

    He is now squarely in the Reform camp - his line is not just the traditional "boats" but the notion the indigenous population (and, to be fair, never said "White", just British) were being disadvantaged in terms of welfare and housing provision by migrants "coming over here, taking every handout and living off our taxes".

    This is a refrain I've heard before - there was a scintilla of admiration for "the Romanians, they grew up in a Communist society and know how to play the system. They come over here and we're wide open and they take everything". On the assumption, that's everything to which they are entitled, yes. Perhaps the issue, as we saw with winter fuel payments, is British people aren't taking the things to which they are entitled either through ignorance or a mistaken sense of pride.

    The illegals have to go through a process but the legal migrants do all they need to do and ask for everything to which they are entitled. If they are considered British citizens and have entered the country legally and have been given permanent permission to stay, do they not have the right to certain benefits or to register with a GP?

    Many people think there ought to be a contributory element to welfare etc. So you can only claim after you have paid in enough. I seem to recall some countries give people made redundant different amounts of support depending on what their salary (and thus their tax) was.

    There are for sure a lot of myths out there, but I'd imagine if you have been on the waiting list for a council house for a decade and you saw a recent immigrant getting ahead in the queue, you would be annoyed. Does this happen? Is it a myth?
    I doubt the Romanians coming here grew up in a communist society. They would have to be at least age 40 to have any memory or experience of communism under Ceausescu.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    I've never championed this stuff and its never afflicted my career. I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

    In the past year I've had invitations to Easter events, Christmas events, Ramadan ones, Iftar (sp?), Diwali, Halloween, Valentine's and plenty of other stuff. Just pick and choose what you're interested in and ignore any you're not . . . which since I'm not especially keen on engaging in events at work means I tend to ignore everything but I have no objection to those who want to do stuff doing it.

    Pride is just one of a plethora of stuff that happens. Get over it.
    No. I won't "get over it". I want it changed. I want it proportional and for people to be free to object without career risk anymore, which will liberate all of us.

    And it's going to change. Because of the obstinacy of people like you.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    If every single company is like this then how come many of us work for ones not like that? 🤔

    You sound as grumpy as someone complaining that Christmas used to be just a day and now its all of December and half of November.

    Get over it, let people have their fun, ignore it if you don't like it. Nobody is making you take part, or taking names of "suspect" people who don't.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,014

    After the nuclear bombers....

    The Crimean Bridge is in a state of emergency, after the Ukrainians detonated "the first" 1.1 tonnes of explosives underwater on the bridge supports.

    I doubt just one of those would do enough damage to bring the bridge down. It might seriously reduce the weight loading, though. As a comparison, the Dambuster's bouncing bombs were 3,000kg of explosive (Torpex).

    Also, there are two bridges: the road and the rail one. I'm still unsure whether they've got the rail bridge back up to full loading/capacity after the explosion a couple of years ago.
    The latest iteration of Russian roulette - driving a lorry across the Kerch bridge...
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    I am afraid you’re just simply wrong. You’re lying to yourself to justify your hatred and in the process self-limiting yourself.

    Believe it if you want but it won’t do you any favours other than building pointless resentment for absolutely no reason.
    You're a fanatic. That's all there is to it.

    We are two nations and you're totally incapable of even recognising another point of view, yet alone deal with it.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524
    edited June 3
    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    I've never championed this stuff and its never afflicted my career. I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

    In the past year I've had invitations to Easter events, Christmas events, Ramadan ones, Iftar (sp?), Diwali, Halloween, Valentine's and plenty of other stuff. Just pick and choose what you're interested in and ignore any you're not . . . which since I'm not especially keen on engaging in events at work means I tend to ignore everything but I have no objection to those who want to do stuff doing it.

    Pride is just one of a plethora of stuff that happens. Get over it.
    No. I won't "get over it". I want it changed. I want it proportional and for people to be free to object without career risk anymore, which will liberate all of us.

    And it's going to change. Because of the obstinacy of people like you.
    What do you want to object to?

    Other people having fun? Don't be a dick.

    Being made to take part? You're not already.

    If you want to do something for Easter I'm not going to say you can't just because I'm an atheist, enjoy your celebration. And let people celebrate for as long as they want. Christmas, Ramadan . . . plenty of celebrations last for a month or more already.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    I am afraid you’re just simply wrong. You’re lying to yourself to justify your hatred and in the process self-limiting yourself.

    Believe it if you want but it won’t do you any favours other than building pointless resentment for absolutely no reason.
    You're a fanatic. That's all there is to it.

    We are two nations and you're totally incapable of even recognising another point of view, yet alone deal with it.
    You're entitled to your point of view.

    You're not entitled to stopping other people from having fun.

    You're not entitled to insist that Christmas or Pride or anything else takes place in 24 hours rather than spread out for a month, if people want to celebrate for a while, let them and just live your own life.
  • theakestheakes Posts: 964
    SNP to get 0ver 40% of the vote and win comfortably. Reform 20-25%, Labour 15 - 20%, rest nowhere with the Lib Dem probably crawling into fourth place.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,877
    edited June 3

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 45,671
    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    This is the same fallacy that is said about moorland wind farms. "They're just a few pylons". They're not. It's a few pylons plus all the infrastructure required to support them - the haul roads alone to get the turbines up there are massive scars on the landscape.

    And remember, moorlands are a vast reservoir for CO2, especially now that some of the dodgy practices of the past are being resolved. I haven't been up on Kinder Scout or Bleaklow for a few years, and apparently it is very different (and better...) up there now thanks to all the work done. (*)

    I have zero problems with wind farms in lowland areas - heck, I quite like the one near my house (built on an old WW2 airfield). But I do think it is very wise to preserve the few wildernesses that we have left.

    (*) https://reports.peakdistrict.gov.uk/naturerecovery/docs/themes/moorland/case-studies/kinder-scout.html
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 55,550
    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,877

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    They don't have to enforce rainbow lanyards and pronouns on emails.
  • LennonLennon Posts: 1,814
    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    I don't suppose that there is a Maastricht Hotel in the town of Schengen is there?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,704
    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    It's in Schengen
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524
    edited June 3
    Cmon PB. You can do this.

    I AM STAYING IN THE MOST EUROPEAN HOTEL IN EUROPE

    What might that be?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,014
    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    Chateux d'Urspelt?
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,000
    edited June 3
    theakes said:

    SNP to get 0ver 40% of the vote and win comfortably. Reform 20-25%, Labour 15 - 20%, rest nowhere with the Lib Dem probably crawling into fourth place.

    The Tory vote will collapse but personally I doubt by enough to fall below the LD - they've never exceeded 3% in either the constituency or regional vote here, and they were scoring under 3% in a four horse race for the constituency. The Greens don't normally contest here but have got 5% in the list here, they are perhaps a better bet for surprise fourth.

    Edit
    Scot Tories ca 5%
    Scot Greens ca 5%
    Scot LDs ca 2% is my prediction for the minor places
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    I've never championed this stuff and its never afflicted my career. I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

    In the past year I've had invitations to Easter events, Christmas events, Ramadan ones, Iftar (sp?), Diwali, Halloween, Valentine's and plenty of other stuff. Just pick and choose what you're interested in and ignore any you're not . . . which since I'm not especially keen on engaging in events at work means I tend to ignore everything but I have no objection to those who want to do stuff doing it.

    Pride is just one of a plethora of stuff that happens. Get over it.
    No. I won't "get over it". I want it changed. I want it proportional and for people to be free to object without career risk anymore, which will liberate all of us.

    And it's going to change. Because of the obstinacy of people like you.
    What do you want to object to?

    Other people having fun? Don't be a dick.

    Being made to take part? You're not already.

    If you want to do something for Easter I'm not going to say you can't just because I'm an atheist, enjoy your celebration. And let people celebrate for as long as they want. Christmas, Ramadan . . . plenty of celebrations last for a month or more already.
    The only person well practiced at being a dick on here, is you.

    It DEFINES you.
  • TazTaz Posts: 18,743
    Leon said:

    Cmon PB. You can do this.

    I AM STAYING IN THE MOST EUROPEAN HOTEL IN EUROPE

    What might that be?

    The E.U. Parliament in Strasbourg !
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524

    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    This is the same fallacy that is said about moorland wind farms. "They're just a few pylons". They're not. It's a few pylons plus all the infrastructure required to support them - the haul roads alone to get the turbines up there are massive scars on the landscape.

    And remember, moorlands are a vast reservoir for CO2, especially now that some of the dodgy practices of the past are being resolved. I haven't been up on Kinder Scout or Bleaklow for a few years, and apparently it is very different (and better...) up there now thanks to all the work done. (*)

    I have zero problems with wind farms in lowland areas - heck, I quite like the one near my house (built on an old WW2 airfield). But I do think it is very wise to preserve the few wildernesses that we have left.

    (*) https://reports.peakdistrict.gov.uk/naturerecovery/docs/themes/moorland/case-studies/kinder-scout.html
    On this, my friend, we are agreed

    Britain has precious little wilderness left, but sone of what we have is exquisite

    Scotland in particular has some of the loveliest land-and-sea scapes on earth

    Fuck this idea that we should concrete it over because we need ten million more immigrants than no one wants and no one voted for. Fuck that
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 1,128

    Dopermean said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Andy_JS said:

    TimS said:

    £-28 per mwh electricity price currently. Another day where our lack of storage, grid connections, electrified heavy industrial base and interconnector capacity means we’re leaving money on the table.

    I don't understand why we haven't built more hydro-electric reservoirs over the last 30 years which could be used to store energy.
    Because they're nosebleedingly expensive in relation to the power generated, in most cases.

    If you dammed a very large Scottish valley, then it might be cost effective, but the (by a very long way) most attractive location for a mega project has been repeatedly vetoed (for understandable reasons).
    This is an amazing project

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station
    It is, but I doubt anything similar will be built again as it will very soon be cheaper to replicate its capabilities with a large battery storage facility.

    I believe it cost around £425m, forty years ago. It would be nearer £1.5bn today, I think ?
    Large battery storage isn't even that necessary when we're transitioning to lots of small battery storage.

    Dinorwig's 9.1 GWh of storage is the equivalent of 140,000 vehicles with a 65 kWh battery, or the equivalent of 0.4% of the vehicles on the road.

    Why spend billions on that, when we're transitioning anyway?

    The amount of storage we will have in this country in a few years time utterly dwarfs anything imaginable today.
    This is also spot on.
    On the couple of occasions over the last few decades where there's been an issue with the fuel supply for domestic motor vehicles, we always see cases of people dangerously storing fuel in their sheds, etc.

    This is because in a situation of scarcity people do not behave economically rationally, they hoard scarce resources rather than sell them.

    The same would be true of fully charged car batteries. If there's a high pressure forecast for a week, and even if a fully charged battery would normally last a person for a month of driving, rather than sell their excess energy for a profit, most people will want to hang onto it, just in case.

    That is ultimately why there will be a market for grid scale storage owned by people willing to sell their energy at a profit when energy is scarce.
    With that said... if power was properly priced, then people would make economically rational decisions
    about when to use it too.

    If it costs you £5 to run the dishwasher now, then maybe you'll postpone it.
    I dunno. I think that would be very unpopular and wouldn't last long in most democracies.
    You can do it now with octopus, you just set your dishwasher/washing machine to start in x hours which all new ones can do. Just like you set your car to charge
    People are used to the convenience of being able to use electricity when they want. A few geeks will enjoy playing the system and looking at the numbers, but most people will see it as a nuisance and a step backwards.

    Household chores are enough of a hassle without having to plan them with the aid of the weather forecast. That's why people pay for a dishwasher, or a robot vacuum cleaner/lawnmower. They don't want to micromanage the whole thing.
    It doesn't require micromanagement, there's a cheap nighttime tariff and you press start in 3 / 6 / x hours. People who do save a few pence, it helps the grid balance.
    When 2 way car chargers are available again then people will use their EV as a domestic battery. It is where it will go because it evens out demand.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    If its universal, then why do so many people not have this "problem"?

    What seems to be universal is that events happen that people are free to take part in, if they choose to do so.

    That people are scorned or suspect or anything else if they don't take part in one event does not seem to be remotely universal.

    Just live and let live.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,014
    edited June 3
    Leon said:

    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    This is the same fallacy that is said about moorland wind farms. "They're just a few pylons". They're not. It's a few pylons plus all the infrastructure required to support them - the haul roads alone to get the turbines up there are massive scars on the landscape.

    And remember, moorlands are a vast reservoir for CO2, especially now that some of the dodgy practices of the past are being resolved. I haven't been up on Kinder Scout or Bleaklow for a few years, and apparently it is very different (and better...) up there now thanks to all the work done. (*)

    I have zero problems with wind farms in lowland areas - heck, I quite like the one near my house (built on an old WW2 airfield). But I do think it is very wise to preserve the few wildernesses that we have left.

    (*) https://reports.peakdistrict.gov.uk/naturerecovery/docs/themes/moorland/case-studies/kinder-scout.html
    On this, my friend, we are agreed

    Britain has precious little wilderness left, but sone of what we have is exquisite

    Scotland in particular has some of the loveliest land-and-sea scapes on earth

    Fuck this idea that we should concrete it over because we need ten million more immigrants than no one wants and no one voted for. Fuck that
    I'd really like to meet the arse who put a single massive wind turbine half way along the Ardnamurcham penisular.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    If its universal, then why do so many people not have this "problem"?

    What seems to be universal is that events happen that people are free to take part in, if they choose to do so.

    That people are scorned or suspect or anything else if they don't take part in one event does not seem to be remotely universal.

    Just live and let live.
    You must be the world's most boring man
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524
    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Cmon PB. You can do this.

    I AM STAYING IN THE MOST EUROPEAN HOTEL IN EUROPE

    What might that be?

    The E.U. Parliament in Strasbourg !
    Even more EU-ish than that, if you can imagine such a thing
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265
    edited June 3

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    If its universal, then why do so many people not have this "problem"?

    What seems to be universal is that events happen that people are free to take part in, if they choose to do so.

    That people are scorned or suspect or anything else if they don't take part in one event does not seem to be remotely universal.

    Just live and let live.
    You must be the world's most boring man
    I assume you've ran out of arguments to bitch and moan about now that you're just turning personal and silly.

    I was responding to the statements and not turning personal.

    If people want to celebrate Christmas for a month instead of a day, or wear poppies for a month instead of a day, or wear a lanyard for a month instead of a day, just let them. If you don't want to, then don't, its not mandatory.

    If people want to do something they enjoy, then there's no harm in that. You don't need to take part, but you don't need to object either.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213
    Leon said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Cmon PB. You can do this.

    I AM STAYING IN THE MOST EUROPEAN HOTEL IN EUROPE

    What might that be?

    The E.U. Parliament in Strasbourg !
    Even more EU-ish than that, if you can imagine such a thing
    I'm guessing Victor's Residenz-Hotel Schloss Berg
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524
    eek said:

    Leon said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Cmon PB. You can do this.

    I AM STAYING IN THE MOST EUROPEAN HOTEL IN EUROPE

    What might that be?

    The E.U. Parliament in Strasbourg !
    Even more EU-ish than that, if you can imagine such a thing
    I'm guessing Victor's Residenz-Hotel Schloss Berg
    Not bad but no
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 45,671
    Really off-topic:

    Sometimes collaborative online tools work really well. A new road junction and diversion is being created at Caxton Gibbett near me, and OpenStreetmap has already been updated to show the new road layout. I'm not even sure the road is actually open yet - it wasn't early on Sunday morning when I ran past (and ran around the new roundabout...)

    The online OS maps do not even have the new road layout that opened in April at Eltisley.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,554

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524

    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    Chateux d'Urspelt?
    Nice but no EU-cigar
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524
    edited June 3
    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    It's in Schengen

    I missed this. Congrats - that’s close enough. And it’s fitting that you should get it

    Not just Schengen. I’m staying in…. The 14th century Chateau de Schengen in Schengen which looks across the exact curve of the Moselle in Schengen where the Schengen agreement was signed, on a boat, floating between France Germany and Luxembourg, here in Schengen





  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 54,897

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,731
    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    Fair enough. All true.

    Pause.

    Let's do it anyway :smiley:
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    If its universal, then why do so many people not have this "problem"?

    What seems to be universal is that events happen that people are free to take part in, if they choose to do so.

    That people are scorned or suspect or anything else if they don't take part in one event does not seem to be remotely universal.

    Just live and let live.
    You must be the world's most boring man
    I assume you've ran out of arguments to bitch and moan about now that you're just turning personal and silly.

    I was responding to the statements and not turning personal.

    If people want to celebrate Christmas for a month instead of a day, or wear poppies for a month instead of a day, or wear a lanyard for a month instead of a day, just let them. If you don't want to, then don't, its not mandatory.

    If people want to do something they enjoy, then there's no harm in that. You don't need to take part, but you don't need to object either.
    Your view is that on every subject you can win an argument simply by being more relentless and repetitive than everyone else, and always having the last word.

    It doesn't work like that.

    Doubtless you'll respond to this and claim some sort of victory - you simply won't be able to help yourself - but I'm happy with the points I've made and that I've addressed yours.

    I won't be engaging with you further.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,731

    Nigelb said:

    Regarding the "facilitating immigration" huffing on the last thread, I note that the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.

    As it is the courts, and not the government which sentence individuals, "two tier Keir" is a pretty dumb comment in this case.

    Let's see what happens with the French investigation, which will possess the evidence regarding the fatalities.

    I think the idea is that Sir Keir should be making personal interventions to overrule the courts and impose his own sentences.
    I'm afraid Sir Keir has invited this with his authoritarian posturing. "My government" this and "my government" that. He acts as though he owns the place.
    It is his ministry. The King asked him to form one and he did. And the minute the King dislikes him he can ask somebody else, and then it'll be his/hers, not Starmer's.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,830

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    You should come and work at my Trust.

    I haven't been emailed about any Pride events, or seen a rainbow flag or lanyard anywhere.

    Indeed I am beginning to think we are missing out.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524
    I’m going to talk loudly about my Leave vote over my Moselle trout and Auxerrois wine this evening, in the Chateau de Schengen restaurant, overlooking the stretch of the river in Schengen where the Schengen Agreement was signed here in Schengen
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 18,088
    edited June 3

    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    This is the same fallacy that is said about moorland wind farms. "They're just a few pylons". They're not. It's a few pylons plus all the infrastructure required to support them - the haul roads alone to get the turbines up there are massive scars on the landscape.

    And remember, moorlands are a vast reservoir for CO2, especially now that some of the dodgy practices of the past are being resolved. I haven't been up on Kinder Scout or Bleaklow for a few years, and apparently it is very different (and better...) up there now thanks to all the work done. (*)

    I have zero problems with wind farms in lowland areas - heck, I quite like the one near my house (built on an old WW2 airfield). But I do think it is very wise to preserve the few wildernesses that we have left.

    (*) https://reports.peakdistrict.gov.uk/naturerecovery/docs/themes/moorland/case-studies/kinder-scout.html
    Kinder Scout is a motorway in comparison with this place and by the way also has a reservoir. It's a few square kilometres in a Highland land mass of 30 000 square kilometres, no-one goes there, and most of the building is underground anyway.

    I'm appreciative of the unique Highland landscape as anyone but this should be as low impact as it gets.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    Foxy said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    You should come and work at my Trust.

    I haven't been emailed about any Pride events, or seen a rainbow flag or lanyard anywhere.

    Indeed I am beginning to think we are missing out.
    I was at a Trust yesterday.

    I won't say which one due to client confidentiality. But it was interesting.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,042
    edited June 3
    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    Well, I for one have been to that exact spot. Albeit in mid winter. I can probably dig out proof if you need it.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 54,405

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    If its universal, then why do so many people not have this "problem"?

    What seems to be universal is that events happen that people are free to take part in, if they choose to do so.

    That people are scorned or suspect or anything else if they don't take part in one event does not seem to be remotely universal.

    Just live and let live.
    You must be the world's most boring man
    I assume you've ran out of arguments to bitch and moan about now that you're just turning personal and silly.

    I was responding to the statements and not turning personal.

    If people want to celebrate Christmas for a month instead of a day, or wear poppies for a month instead of a day, or wear a lanyard for a month instead of a day, just let them. If you don't want to, then don't, its not mandatory.

    If people want to do something they enjoy, then there's no harm in that. You don't need to take part, but you don't need to object either.
    Your view is that on every subject you can win an argument simply by being more relentless and repetitive than everyone else, and always having the last word.

    It doesn't work like that.

    Doubtless you'll respond to this and claim some sort of victory - you simply won't be able to help yourself - but I'm happy with the points I've made and that I've addressed yours.

    I won't be engaging with you further.
    Nothing like a bit of Blue on Blue action!
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,526
    Taz said:

    I’ve avoided a smart meter, not due to woke or any other shite like that, due to their reported unreliability.

    Are they okay now, is it worth getting one ?

    Been considering it.

    Yes, they're fine now
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Casino is either the biggest snowflake ever or works in a very strange company. I work in a university, woke central for many, and it’s entirely possible to ignore Pride month, not wear a lanyard, not indicate one’s pronouns in an email, etc. Stuff is there if you want to get involved, but there is no sense of hectoring, monitoring or compulsion. And, as per Bart’s points, umpteen other activities, e.g. a commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, and a course on drafting legal clauses in commercial contracts (woo!).
    Funny how a guy who is establishment liberal and Woke in every single way doesn't see being Woke as being remotely a problem for him and his career.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 55,550

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482
    Leon said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    It's in Schengen

    I missed this. Congrats - that’s close enough. And it’s fitting that you should get it

    Not just Schengen. I’m staying in…. The 14th century Chateau de Schengen in Schengen which looks across the exact curve of the Moselle in Schengen where the Schengen agreement was signed, on a boat, floating between France Germany and Luxembourg, here in Schengen





    Be careful because your stalker is also staying in the same hotel
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 77,974
    Leon said:

    Cmon PB. You can do this.

    I AM STAYING IN THE MOST EUROPEAN HOTEL IN EUROPE

    What might that be?

    The Grand Budapest Hotel.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,877

    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    This is the same fallacy that is said about moorland wind farms. "They're just a few pylons". They're not. It's a few pylons plus all the infrastructure required to support them - the haul roads alone to get the turbines up there are massive scars on the landscape.

    And remember, moorlands are a vast reservoir for CO2, especially now that some of the dodgy practices of the past are being resolved. I haven't been up on Kinder Scout or Bleaklow for a few years, and apparently it is very different (and better...) up there now thanks to all the work done. (*)

    I have zero problems with wind farms in lowland areas - heck, I quite like the one near my house (built on an old WW2 airfield). But I do think it is very wise to preserve the few wildernesses that we have left.

    (*) https://reports.peakdistrict.gov.uk/naturerecovery/docs/themes/moorland/case-studies/kinder-scout.html
    The tracks for wind turbines are far worse than for pylons too. It's a complex issue - there's not much in the way of ecological value in our grouse moors, but they are cultural icons. Sometimes a scrappy bit of dune is the last habitat for a moth. There are peregrines nesting on the 70s monstrosity down the road.

    Offshore wind is causing real issues for our magnificent seabird colonies - some of the most important in the world. I glance up at the great turd in the middle of Edinburgh and flinch towards even more regulation.

    I don't think anyone can come away from these debates satisfied, tbh.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,554
    .

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish some numbers that take… what, 10 minutes to compile? OK, it’s something. Not much, but something.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    You're not going to call me Gammon as well?

    Slipping.

    Seriously, you guys have a massive blindspot on this and you haven't a clue what's coming.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,877

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    There's a good bit in Clarkson's Farm and he's moaning about equalities and the builder points out it just means he has to put a couple of disabled parking spots in.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,014
    Leon said:

    I’m going to talk loudly about my Leave vote over my Moselle trout and Auxerrois wine this evening, in the Chateau de Schengen restaurant, overlooking the stretch of the river in Schengen where the Schengen Agreement was signed here in Schengen

    There's a 'Spoons in Schengen?
  • CookieCookie Posts: 15,248

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    If they want to win public sector contracts, they have to go rather further than that, setting out in great deal the policies that they take to promote minority interests.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    You're not going to call me Gammon as well?

    Slipping.

    Seriously, you guys have a massive blindspot on this and you haven't a clue what's coming.
    Go on. Enlighten us. What’s coming?
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213
    edited June 3
    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    I have a philosophy of live and let live and I’m the one with a blind spot?
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482
    Cookie said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    If they want to win public sector contracts, they have to go rather further than that, setting out in great deal the policies that they take to promote minority interests.
    In my experience (admittedly in the construction industry) the social value aspect of public tenders is mainly focused on things like apprenticeships and work experience. Pride does not factor into it whatsoever.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 65,598
    Pulpstar said:

    Taz said:

    I’ve avoided a smart meter, not due to woke or any other shite like that, due to their reported unreliability.

    Are they okay now, is it worth getting one ?

    Been considering it.

    Yes, they're fine now
    Absolutely

    EDF have given me 4 consecutive Sundays with free electricity between 8am and midnight due to my use of electricity out of peak times and all because I have a smart meter
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    There's a good bit in Clarkson's Farm and he's moaning about equalities and the builder points out it just means he has to put a couple of disabled parking spots in.
    Equalities has malicious effects. It has bankruptee councils through equal pay claims where judges try and second guess the market.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    Cookie said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    If they want to win public sector contracts, they have to go rather further than that, setting out in great deal the policies that they take to promote minority interests.
    In my experience (admittedly in the construction industry) the social value aspect of public tenders is mainly focused on things like apprenticeships and work experience. Pride does not factor into it whatsoever.
    I'm in construction too. Diversity is certainly a part of it.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 84,346
    Embarrassing.....

    Defence minister Al Carns has managed a military-grade assault on the English language in a one-page letter to his constituents in Birmingham Selly Oak over the weekend – ironically about what he’s doing for “education” in the area. In just a few hundred words, Carns commits no fewer than seven howlers:

    https://order-order.com/2025/06/03/defence-minister-cant-spell-in-letter-about-education/
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 35,383

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    Don't you find the whole concept of "protected characteristics" ridiculous?
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482
    edited June 3
    Andy_JS said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    Don't you find the whole concept of "protected characteristics" ridiculous?
    No. Because pregnancy is a protected characteristic and if it wasn’t women could be sacked for getting pregnant. I don’t favour that. Do you?
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    There's a good bit in Clarkson's Farm and he's moaning about equalities and the builder points out it just means he has to put a couple of disabled parking spots in.
    Equalities has malicious effects. It has bankruptee councils through equal pay claims where judges try and second guess the market.
    It bankrupted Birmingham because they arsed around for 30+ years.

    Mrs Eek first went through an equal status / equal pay validation claim back in 1990 while working for a council in Kent. That tells you how long Birmingham avoided paying women correctly
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457
    eek said:

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    I have a philosophy of live and let live and I’m the one with a blind spot?
    When did I ever say I'm not live and let live?

    That's not how I'm being treated. This stuff is megaphoned into my ear every year for a month or more, like Steve Bray, and if you ever objected your career would be shot.

    That's not live and let live. That's live in sufferance and try not to let it get to you.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,457

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    You're not going to call me Gammon as well?

    Slipping.

    Seriously, you guys have a massive blindspot on this and you haven't a clue what's coming.
    Go on. Enlighten us. What’s coming?
    Your EDI religion is going to be purged.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 84,346
    England making a right mess of the cricket.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    You're not going to call me Gammon as well?

    Slipping.

    Seriously, you guys have a massive blindspot on this and you haven't a clue what's coming.
    Go on. Enlighten us. What’s coming?
    Your EDI religion is going to be purged.
    Purged how? Trump hasn’t been successful in eliminating it from the US corporate sphere so I can’t see how Nigel and his merry men will manage. Ultimately lots of us like it.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,042
    edited June 3
    Eabhal said:

    FF43 said:

    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the previous thread, there was a discussion about why we don't have more pumped storage.

    And the answer is that there actually aren't that many suitable sites. You need to have two reservoirs that are very close, of sufficient size, and which have enough vertical drop between them.

    That's a pretty rare combination.

    They also take up a lot of space, are not inexpensive to build, are more convenient if they are close to existing intermittent power sources (and ideally demand) so as to avoid the need to build out transmission capacity, and are far from maintenance free.

    Plus they often involve having to compulsory purchase order a bunch of people's property, because the chance that all the space is going to belong to a single landowner is really small.

    The pumped storage schemes I mentioned in the Highlands use existing lochs (Ness and Awe) as the lower reservoir. You need to build the upper reservoirs, which are about 1km wide, on the mountain tops, land has no economic value. Drop is 500m. They are close to existing power lines that are being upgraded to handle additional wind farms. They are definitely expensive to build, but on current estimates a fraction of Hinckley C and probably more useful.
    You ask @malcolmg what he thinks of despoiling those landscapes.
    Technically, they're quite attractive...
    Despoiled landscape? Basically the lochan in the picture becomes a bigger one. No-one is going to see it anyway


    This is the same fallacy that is said about moorland wind farms. "They're just a few pylons". They're not. It's a few pylons plus all the infrastructure required to support them - the haul roads alone to get the turbines up there are massive scars on the landscape.

    And remember, moorlands are a vast reservoir for CO2, especially now that some of the dodgy practices of the past are being resolved. I haven't been up on Kinder Scout or Bleaklow for a few years, and apparently it is very different (and better...) up there now thanks to all the work done. (*)

    I have zero problems with wind farms in lowland areas - heck, I quite like the one near my house (built on an old WW2 airfield). But I do think it is very wise to preserve the few wildernesses that we have left.

    (*) https://reports.peakdistrict.gov.uk/naturerecovery/docs/themes/moorland/case-studies/kinder-scout.html
    The tracks for wind turbines are far worse than for pylons too. It's a complex issue - there's not much in the way of ecological value in our grouse moors, but they are cultural icons. Sometimes a scrappy bit of dune is the last habitat for a moth. There are peregrines nesting on the 70s monstrosity down the road.

    Offshore wind is causing real issues for our magnificent seabird colonies - some of the most important in the world. I glance up at the great turd in the middle of Edinburgh and flinch towards even more regulation.

    I don't think anyone can come away from these debates satisfied, tbh.
    It feels a bit like the repetition of a theme.

    London gets all the power and everywhere else can go hang.

    Solar farms on Surrey golf courses please.

    How many people play Wentworth?

    BTW, The Pennine moors aren't exempt - there is a big wind scheme proposed for Calderdale on SSSI moorland.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 35,383

    Andy_JS said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    Don't you find the whole concept of "protected characteristics" ridiculous?
    No. Because pregnancy is a protected characteristic and if it wasn’t women could be sacked for getting pregnant. I don’t favour that. Do you?
    The whole idea is anti-equality in my opinion. Why shouldn't short men be similarly protected when they're probably the most discriminated against group of people there are?
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482
    Andy_JS said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    Don't you find the whole concept of "protected characteristics" ridiculous?
    No. Because pregnancy is a protected characteristic and if it wasn’t women could be sacked for getting pregnant. I don’t favour that. Do you?
    The whole idea is anti-equality in my opinion. Why shouldn't short men be similarly protected when they're probably the most discriminated against group of people there are?
    Do you or do you not think women should be able to be sacked for getting pregnant? Your avoidance suggests that you don’t but you realise that it means you are simply in favour of some protected characteristics rather than others.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 15,248

    eek said:

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    I have a philosophy of live and let live and I’m the one with a blind spot?
    When did I ever say I'm not live and let live?

    That's not how I'm being treated. This stuff is megaphoned into my ear every year for a month or more, like Steve Bray, and if you ever objected your career would be shot.

    That's not live and let live. That's live in sufferance and try not to let it get to you.
    We get two months in Manchester. Pride in June, Manchester Pride in August.
    There's also LBGT history month in February, but that' not really caught on yet. Give it time, mind.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,554
    Andy_JS said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    Don't you find the whole concept of "protected characteristics" ridiculous?
    I think it’s good that we’re not sexist, and we clearly needed legislation to make this happen. I think it’s good that we’re not racist, and we clearly needed legislation to make this happen too. So what is ridiculous about that?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,524

    Leon said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Tonight I am staying at the single most European hotel in Europe

    If anyone can guess what it is, they win a free Aperol Spritz which I shall drink for them

    It's in Schengen

    I missed this. Congrats - that’s close enough. And it’s fitting that you should get it

    Not just Schengen. I’m staying in…. The 14th century Chateau de Schengen in Schengen which looks across the exact curve of the Moselle in Schengen where the Schengen agreement was signed, on a boat, floating between France Germany and Luxembourg, here in Schengen





    Be careful because your stalker is also staying in the same hotel
    Again???

    Actually i’m not surprised. There was some devious fuckery going on in room 115 earlier, just down the palatial hallway. Some dude off his gourd on Fent with about five Balinese hookers

    It’s him. Again
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    There's a good bit in Clarkson's Farm and he's moaning about equalities and the builder points out it just means he has to put a couple of disabled parking spots in.
    Equalities has malicious effects. It has bankruptee councils through equal pay claims where judges try and second guess the market.
    The equal pay claims one is one where I 100% agree with you on, its a ridiculous law in this day and age that comes up with some very perverse results as a result.

    Pay should be the market rate for that specific job, not "equivalent" jobs. If a man, or a woman, finds another job is paying more they should be fully entitled to apply for that other job, if they want to earn more.

    Equality should be no more and no less than not discriminating. If you refuse to hire a woman for a better paid job, because she's a woman, that's discrimination. If you pay a market rate for a job, its not.

    The whole idea of 'mens jobs' or 'women's jobs' should not exist in this day and age.

    But that's a bad law passed about 50 years ago back when 'mens jobs' and 'women's jobs' did exist and it hasn't been repealed to keep up with the times. Its not 'woke'.

    Parliament can and should repeal bad laws.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213

    eek said:

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    I have a philosophy of live and let live and I’m the one with a blind spot?
    When did I ever say I'm not live and let live?

    That's not how I'm being treated. This stuff is megaphoned into my ear every year for a month or more, like Steve Bray, and if you ever objected your career would be shot.

    That's not live and let live. That's live in sufferance and try not to let it get to you.
    It's work - they could make you redundant tomorrow and no-one would shed a tear.

    I'm at a loss as to why people care about what's going on around them - I do what I'm paid to do, make myself available to others who want my help and walk out the door when the work I need to do is finished.

    Because it's polite I endeavour to use the pronouns people want to use - which isn't difficult apart from they / them where the issue is the plural throws me.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,482

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    There's a good bit in Clarkson's Farm and he's moaning about equalities and the builder points out it just means he has to put a couple of disabled parking spots in.
    Equalities has malicious effects. It has bankruptee councils through equal pay claims where judges try and second guess the market.
    The equal pay claims one is one where I 100% agree with you on, its a ridiculous law in this day and age that comes up with some very perverse results as a result.

    Pay should be the market rate for that specific job, not "equivalent" jobs. If a man, or a woman, finds another job is paying more they should be fully entitled to apply for that other job, if they want to earn more.

    Equality should be no more and no less than not discriminating. If you refuse to hire a woman for a better paid job, because she's a woman, that's discrimination. If you pay a market rate for a job, its not.

    The whole idea of 'mens jobs' or 'women's jobs' should not exist in this day and age.

    But that's a bad law passed about 50 years ago back when 'mens jobs' and 'women's jobs' did exist and it hasn't been repealed to keep up with the times. Its not 'woke'.

    Parliament can and should repeal bad laws.
    I agree on this point too
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,761
    Dopermean said:

    Dopermean said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Andy_JS said:

    TimS said:

    £-28 per mwh electricity price currently. Another day where our lack of storage, grid connections, electrified heavy industrial base and interconnector capacity means we’re leaving money on the table.

    I don't understand why we haven't built more hydro-electric reservoirs over the last 30 years which could be used to store energy.
    Because they're nosebleedingly expensive in relation to the power generated, in most cases.

    If you dammed a very large Scottish valley, then it might be cost effective, but the (by a very long way) most attractive location for a mega project has been repeatedly vetoed (for understandable reasons).
    This is an amazing project

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station
    It is, but I doubt anything similar will be built again as it will very soon be cheaper to replicate its capabilities with a large battery storage facility.

    I believe it cost around £425m, forty years ago. It would be nearer £1.5bn today, I think ?
    Large battery storage isn't even that necessary when we're transitioning to lots of small battery storage.

    Dinorwig's 9.1 GWh of storage is the equivalent of 140,000 vehicles with a 65 kWh battery, or the equivalent of 0.4% of the vehicles on the road.

    Why spend billions on that, when we're transitioning anyway?

    The amount of storage we will have in this country in a few years time utterly dwarfs anything imaginable today.
    This is also spot on.
    On the couple of occasions over the last few decades where there's been an issue with the fuel supply for domestic motor vehicles, we always see cases of people dangerously storing fuel in their sheds, etc.

    This is because in a situation of scarcity people do not behave economically rationally, they hoard scarce resources rather than sell them.

    The same would be true of fully charged car batteries. If there's a high pressure forecast for a week, and even if a fully charged battery would normally last a person for a month of driving, rather than sell their excess energy for a profit, most people will want to hang onto it, just in case.

    That is ultimately why there will be a market for grid scale storage owned by people willing to sell their energy at a profit when energy is scarce.
    With that said... if power was properly priced, then people would make economically rational decisions
    about when to use it too.

    If it costs you £5 to run the dishwasher now, then maybe you'll postpone it.
    I dunno. I think that would be very unpopular and wouldn't last long in most democracies.
    You can do it now with octopus, you just set your dishwasher/washing machine to start in x hours which all new ones can do. Just like you set your car to charge
    People are used to the convenience of being able to use electricity when they want. A few geeks will enjoy playing the system and looking at the numbers, but most people will see it as a nuisance and a step backwards.

    Household chores are enough of a hassle without having to plan them with the aid of the weather forecast. That's why people pay for a dishwasher, or a robot vacuum cleaner/lawnmower. They don't want to micromanage the whole thing.
    It doesn't require micromanagement, there's a cheap nighttime tariff and you press start in 3 / 6 / x hours. People who do save a few pence, it helps the grid balance.
    When 2 way car chargers are available again then people will use their EV as a domestic battery. It is where it will go because it evens out demand.
    Don't be daft few will use their car as a domestic battery, simple reason is they don't want to go to the car to go somewhere and find the car hasn't enough charge for where they want to go because the wind wasn't blowing in buttfuck nowhere
  • TazTaz Posts: 18,743
    Bloody football on ITV so watching classic Star Trek on Legend. Just got to the ‘teach me about this strange earth custom called Kissing, Captain’ scene 👍
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 24,265
    Cookie said:

    eek said:

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    I have a philosophy of live and let live and I’m the one with a blind spot?
    When did I ever say I'm not live and let live?

    That's not how I'm being treated. This stuff is megaphoned into my ear every year for a month or more, like Steve Bray, and if you ever objected your career would be shot.

    That's not live and let live. That's live in sufferance and try not to let it get to you.
    We get two months in Manchester. Pride in June, Manchester Pride in August.
    There's also LBGT history month in February, but that' not really caught on yet. Give it time, mind.
    Just wait until you hear how long Christmas lasts.

    And Easter eggs are available from around New Years onwards.

    Start seeing Poppies just after Bonfire Night.

    That things spread out over time is hardly unique.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,213

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    Companies are not free to take on whatever policies they see fit. They have to comply with all sorts of regulations on diversity and equality.
    Like what? They have to not discriminate on protected characteristics, but I can’t think of much they have to comply with in terms of “regulations on diversity and equality”. Cite some legislation if this is true.
    It's not enough not to discriminate; they have to prove they are not discriminating. They are also obliged to publish details about their compliance with diversity targets for women and ethnic minorities in the boardroom.

    https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-finalises-proposals-boost-disclosure-diversity-listed-company-boards-executive-committees
    They have to publish data. That’s it. To be honest I am not really in favour of regulations like that but it’s not exactly onerous for a big company.
    There's a good bit in Clarkson's Farm and he's moaning about equalities and the builder points out it just means he has to put a couple of disabled parking spots in.
    Equalities has malicious effects. It has bankruptee councils through equal pay claims where judges try and second guess the market.
    The equal pay claims one is one where I 100% agree with you on, its a ridiculous law in this day and age that comes up with some very perverse results as a result.

    Pay should be the market rate for that specific job, not "equivalent" jobs. If a man, or a woman, finds another job is paying more they should be fully entitled to apply for that other job, if they want to earn more.

    Equality should be no more and no less than not discriminating. If you refuse to hire a woman for a better paid job, because she's a woman, that's discrimination. If you pay a market rate for a job, its not.

    The whole idea of 'mens jobs' or 'women's jobs' should not exist in this day and age.

    But that's a bad law passed about 50 years ago back when 'mens jobs' and 'women's jobs' did exist and it hasn't been repealed to keep up with the times. Its not 'woke'.

    Parliament can and should repeal bad laws.
    I agree on this point too
    The issue is Birmingham should have done the once and do review 30+ years earlier than they did. Remember I said the councils in Kent did it back in the 90s. After that market forces could take over (and very much did).
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 54,405
    Taz said:

    Bloody football on ITV so watching classic Star Trek on Legend. Just got to the ‘teach me about this strange earth custom called Kissing, Captain’ scene 👍

    "Please, Captain. Not in front of the Klingons!" - Spock.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,042
    edited June 3

    eek said:

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "DW Politics
    @dw_politics

    JUST IN: A German court rules government's move to turn away asylum seekers at border is unlawful- in a blow to Chancellor Merz."

    https://x.com/dw_politics/status/1929550116957860323

    The system of international law/human rights either needs to be changed or it will be overturned entirely.
    The legal/activist class across Europe are like the monks and priests of the Catholic Church in northern and Western Europe circa 1500. Parasitic, doctrinaire, vain, myopic and greedy. And you can feel the resentment building and building. A Reformation is coming to sweep them away and it might be violent
    That's a great analogy.

    But it goes wider. Full on Pride shite at work today with some events stretching into August. A queer quiz. A gay tapestry. Marches all over the place. A fans for trans social.

    Who wants this shit?
    I am totally ungay, but your workplace sounds like fun.

    Did you realise the company was this "right on" when you joined?
    All companies are like this now. All of them.

    The only acceptable response is to cheer and amplify it. To do anything else risks you being labelled as a homophobe, and we all know what that means.

    So, this absurd foghorning goes on - despite most people not really caring and being somewhat fed up with it all.
    That’s not my experience at double digit organisations across both engineering and law. You can delete DEI emails. You can refuse to put pronouns in email signatures. You don’t have to attend pride events. Nobody cares. It’s all in your head.

    I do all of those things and nobody thinks I am a homophobe because, well, I’m not.
    No, it's not all in my head - this is simple denialism by you.

    It's on every call I go to, and I have to listen to it all.

    You said upthread you loved this stuff, and now you say you don't do any of it.

    Which one is it?
    Where I've worked there's emails to 'Pride' events . . . and emails inviting to football games, basketball games, chess clubs, book clubs, craft clubs, and plenty of other things.

    The general thing with social emails is to pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest.

    So what if some people in your work want to do Pride activities? How is that affecting you whatsoever? If others are playing 5-a-side is that affecting you? Don't hear you moaning about that, but I imagine that's happening too?

    If Pride is the only social stuff being organised, then it sounds like a pretty crappy place to work, but if its one amongst many, then why have a bee in your bonnet about what others choose to do?
    You really don't get this, do you?

    You have to be seen to champion, echo and be enthusiastic about this stuff, from a career perspective, or else you are suspect. It's a required belief. There is no choice.

    This is the entire problem with Wokery. Which people like you and @Gallowgate cannot understand.

    [PS. I don't have people talking to me about 5-a-side on every call for every day for a full month every year, and requiring me to applaud it or I'm seen as bigot. It's not remotely comparable.]
    Why don't you resign? I've got friends who feel like this about Gaza and have turned down good jobs at arms companies as a result.
    EVERY SINGLE COMPANY IS LIKE THIS. You can't escape.

    The solution is political: either Woke is reined in, or it ends.

    For example: Pride could go back to being a fun weekend and a march, fine, but no that wasn't enough. Now, its all of June and July and August at 110dB every single year and rainbow lanyards and flags all year round. It bores people at best and p1sses people off at worst.

    Why? Because people don't like to be hectored but it's politically incorrect - and dangerous - to object so people feel even more frustrated because they can't say anything.

    If you're not proportionate on anything and set rules around the right thing to say, or not say, you get a backlash.

    The religious adherents can never see it, because they love it.
    Companies are free to take on whatever policies they see fit; you're free to take on whatever job you fancy.

    You're right that the solution is political - but I don't think you'll find much support for banning woke activity in private companies across wider society.

    I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I feel this way about our lack of cycle infrastructure. Write to your MP, put up posters, make the argument here and elsewhere. Explain why it harms your business and/or society. Good luck, I guess.
    That's not a real choice, though. This is universal in the corporate world now.

    Thankfully, there is a pushback - but it needs a real shove to tip it out the system.
    No, it isn’t.

    I’ve encountered the proactive shite twice in a long career.

    That and the time HR fucked up booking a resteraunt, because they had no idea of actual diversity.
    Er, yes it is. And I suspect I've worked for more clients in more sectors than you have.

    This is just denialism: people veer between saying the problem doesn't exist or that it does but that's your problem.
    Some companies think diversity is important and spend money on it.

    Some companies employ people who think it's important

    My viewpoint is that it's irrelevant to me but if people think it's important that's fine by me.

    I really don't see why people get worked up about it...
    Then, you need to work harder to educate yourself.
    You will have to enlighten me because at the moment you remind me of


    I have a philosophy of live and let live and I’m the one with a blind spot?
    When did I ever say I'm not live and let live?

    That's not how I'm being treated. This stuff is megaphoned into my ear every year for a month or more, like Steve Bray, and if you ever objected your career would be shot.

    That's not live and let live. That's live in sufferance and try not to let it get to you.
    Before I gave it up recently, I worked for a large company with lots of stuff of this nature.

    I ignored all of it. If they'd cared to dig, they'd have found a compound rule that put all the emails in the ignore bin.

    I couldn't get made redundant despite 3 attempts.

    It is all performance. You've always had to parrot nonsense to get promoted. Why play the game?

    [Edit: on the other hand, there's no need to be rude to anyone, either]
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,761

    Pulpstar said:

    Taz said:

    I’ve avoided a smart meter, not due to woke or any other shite like that, due to their reported unreliability.

    Are they okay now, is it worth getting one ?

    Been considering it.

    Yes, they're fine now
    Absolutely

    EDF have given me 4 consecutive Sundays with free electricity between 8am and midnight due to my use of electricity out of peak times and all because I have a smart meter
    Anyone who allowed a smart meter to be installed is a fool, its networked.....sooner or later you will have script kiddies turning them off for fun. They are less secure than an essex girls virginity
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