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Why you need an exorcist to deal with Boris Johnson – politicalbetting.com

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  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 74,212
    HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    MattW said:

    Battlebus said:

    Jenrick is changing up his social media strategy:

    https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1944385240127967643

    Coming out as a Tory 'wet'
    Nowhere near his constituency.
    His main home is in Herefordshire.
    Isn't Leominster the location of his Wife's family's mansion?
    For those who don't remember, during the Covid pandemic he decided to ignore lockdown and travel between his various homes.

    More amusingly, he criticised the Reform candidate at the last election for living in Gedling, just outside the Newark constituency.

    He is an utter scumbag.
    'He is an utter scumbag', perhaps he might be ruthless enough to win a general election then? Certainly general election winners are by no means all Saints.
    It is however comparatively unusual for them to be utter scumbags. Blair, who hid it well, Wilson, who was slightly fortunate in his timing, Lloyd George due to unusual circumstances and perhaps Churchill, by a whisker.*

    After that I'm actually struggling. Most Prime Ministers are of course as you say, not saints but that's different from being genuinely dreadful human beings in the way Jenrick is. Such people tend to rather put voters off.

    *Autocorrect changed that to 'by a whiskey,' which still worked but wasn't what I meant.
    I am sure Boris will be delighted he is not in your 'utter scumbag' category
    I don’t think he has the patience or energy to be a genuine scumbag. He’s just an unpleasant buffoon.

    I’m intrigued that you think he is an ‘utter scumbag’ though. Damascene conversion?
    No I don't think that, 'unpleasant buffoon' is a relative complement for him coming from you
    Indeed, it goes well with the other things I say about him, none of which are compliments.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 19,490
    edited July 13
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a trice. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 74,212

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 19,490
    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    The future is AI, as a certain knapper keeps (not) telling us.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,889

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    They seem terrible odds. I think Cricviz (whose model I don't trust when inplay) started with England only having if I remember correctly 15% chance of winning. Chasing down even large totals at Lords has been a common factor in the modern era.
    That's why there are no poor bookmakers even as (I am told) the country's economy descends into the abyss. Still, I had a decent punting day on the horses yesterday and this is a diversion.

    Couple of quiet weeks before the King George at Ascot and then Goodwood.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,050
    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    Don't tell Sir Foreign Asset that we're negotiating with India. We'll end up giving all the geegaws in the Tower back, and probably the Tower itself.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 74,212

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    The future is AI, as a certain knapper keeps (not) telling us.
    When my father first tried to use a very early spell check, it changed all references to Charolais bulls to 'cheerless bulls' and then when discussing the regulations for porcine movements surpassed itself by declaring that no piss would be allowed on site until it had been cleared by the inspector.

    Dad found that very funny indeed. So did the rest of the committee he was writing the report for. But it put him off spellcheck and autocomplete for life.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 74,212

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    Don't tell Sir Foreign Asset that we're negotiating with India. We'll end up giving all the geegaws in the Tower back, and probably the Tower itself.
    More likely we'd lose by ten wickets, instead of the five it's going to be.
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,490
    Does anyone know the odds for a tie in the cricket?
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 19,490

    Does anyone know the odds for a tie in the cricket?

    About 1000 to 1. I think there have been several thousand tests and a couple of ties.
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,490
    The Dragonesses have scored their second historic goal

    Yay
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,009

    Does anyone know the odds for a tie in the cricket?

    Don't they normally wear Whites? (be-dum-tish)
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 74,212

    Does anyone know the odds for a tie in the cricket?

    Don't they normally wear Whites? (be-dum-tish)
    Take a bow.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,009
    edited July 13

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    Don't tell Sir Foreign Asset that we're negotiating with India. We'll end up giving all the geegaws in the Tower back, and probably the Tower itself.
    But we're glad to say, we're in the UK
    West Indian batsmen can bat all day
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 1,259
    edited July 13

    MattW said:

    Battlebus said:

    Jenrick is changing up his social media strategy:

    https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1944385240127967643

    Coming out as a Tory 'wet'
    Nowhere near his constituency.
    His main home is in Herefordshire.
    Isn't Leominster the location of his Wife's family's mansion?
    For those who don't remember, during the Covid pandemic he decided to ignore lockdown and travel between his various homes.

    More amusingly, he criticised the Reform candidate at the last election for living in Gedling, just outside the Newark constituency.

    He is an utter scumbag.
    Yes, he really is a hateful chancer. And that isn't the worst of it. The Desmond business should have seen his career both as a politician and a barrister under scrutiny. I suspect if you or I used our (imaginary) political office to save Richard Desmond £50million or thereabouts from a local authority tax bill we would be discussing the issue with plod.
    For a tip of 1/5000th of the saving as well
    Not just corrupt but cheap, all to deprive the residents of tower hamlets of £50m that could have provided much needed facilities.
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,652
    edited July 13
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    When I speed-read 185-9 I thought "I'll take that".

    Then I realised it was the score, not the odds.

    Back to the drawing board.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,642

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    The future is AI, as a certain knapper keeps (not) telling us.
    Rather a depressing article in the Graun. Basically all the job applications these days are the same because AI. Or so it claims. No longer a measure of personal competence.

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jul/13/student-debt-graduates-share-job-hunting-woes-ai-fallout
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,642
    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    MattW said:

    Battlebus said:

    Jenrick is changing up his social media strategy:

    https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1944385240127967643

    Coming out as a Tory 'wet'
    Nowhere near his constituency.
    His main home is in Herefordshire.
    Isn't Leominster the location of his Wife's family's mansion?
    For those who don't remember, during the Covid pandemic he decided to ignore lockdown and travel between his various homes.

    More amusingly, he criticised the Reform candidate at the last election for living in Gedling, just outside the Newark constituency.

    He is an utter scumbag.
    'He is an utter scumbag', perhaps he might be ruthless enough to win a general election then? Certainly general election winners are by no means all Saints.
    It is however comparatively unusual for them to be utter scumbags. Blair, who hid it well, Wilson, who was slightly fortunate in his timing, Lloyd George due to unusual circumstances and perhaps Churchill, by a whisker.*

    After that I'm actually struggling. Most Prime Ministers are of course as you say, not saints but that's different from being genuinely dreadful human beings in the way Jenrick is. Such people tend to rather put voters off.

    *Autocorrect changed that to 'by a whiskey,' which still worked but wasn't what I meant.
    I am sure Boris will be delighted he is not in your 'utter scumbag' category
    I don’t think he has the patience or energy to be a genuine scumbag. He’s just an unpleasant buffoon.

    I’m intrigued that you think he is an ‘utter scumbag’ though. Damascene conversion?
    No I don't think that, 'unpleasant buffoon' is a relative complement for him coming from you
    Indeed, it goes well with the other things I say about him, none of which are compliments.
    I'm sure that Mr J is immune to such remarks anyway.
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,490
    I think that, in Test cricket, slow over rates should only be punished when the game is drawn

    I really do believe that it would be absurd to have financial sanctions on either team in such an enthralling match as we're seeing, which is guaranteed to have a result
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,652

    The Dragonesses have scored their second historic goal

    Yay

    Why are lady footballers always depicted in the throes of a group grope, rather than actually kicking the ball?
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 66,200
    edited July 13
    Tomorrow's papers

    Metro

    Politicians

    'We do not trust any of you'

    Least surprising comments by the public with serious loss of trust across the nation

    NOTA winner

    https://news.sky.com/story/fridays-national-newspaper-front-pages-12427754?postid=9876020#liveblog-body
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,642

    Tomorrow's papers

    Metro

    Politicians

    'We do not trust any of you'

    Least surprising comments by the public with serious loss of trust across the nation

    NOTA winner

    John Harris in the Graun was also considering the issue - if perhaps inevitably from a Glasto hook.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/13/glastonbury-england-silent-majority-politics
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 66,200

    Tomorrow's papers

    Metro

    Politicians

    'We do not trust any of you'

    Least surprising comments by the public with serious loss of trust across the nation

    NOTA winner

    https://news.sky.com/story/fridays-national-newspaper-front-pages-12427754?postid=9876020#liveblog-body

    Link not working?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,776
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    The future is AI, as a certain knapper keeps (not) telling us.
    Rather a depressing article in the Graun. Basically all the job applications these days are the same because AI. Or so it claims. No longer a measure of personal competence.

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jul/13/student-debt-graduates-share-job-hunting-woes-ai-fallout
    Someone I worked with at a university many moons ago used to claim she marked coursework by throwing all the folders of work from the top of her stairs and the ones that landed furthest got a first.

    I was rather appalled at the time about unprofessionalism but given what we read about AI and students maybe she was years ahead of her time.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,009
    Chelsea 3 - 0 PSG

    [Sam Leitch voice] They'll be rioting in the streets of Paris tonight!
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited July 13
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    The future is AI, as a certain knapper keeps (not) telling us.
    Rather a depressing article in the Graun. Basically all the job applications these days are the same because AI. Or so it claims. No longer a measure of personal competence.

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jul/13/student-debt-graduates-share-job-hunting-woes-ai-fallout
    I was talking to some academics the other week and they said the kids get very stressed about a bad mark on any module now, because they have to upload their transcript of all their marks and they were saying that the AI does the initial filter and they are so worried that it will just reject them for that bad mark. How true the rejection is, I don't know, but the academics said they were fairly sure that yes the AI was being used to filter and if your CV was basically decent A-Levels, decent degree mark from a decent unis, you won't stand out at all to the AI and easy to keep getting filtered out (especially if your application keeps missing whatever magical terms the AI is looking for).

    And of course its a two way street. Its easier than ever to use AI to bash out a letters / transcripts of why you want to join Acme Bolts, Nuts and Rivets Inc and so all these companies are getting 1000s of applications.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    That's a fairly remarkable stat.

    North Korea has supplied Russia with over 12 million artillery shells and 28,000 containers of weapons, according to a report by South Korean intelligence, cited by Yonhap News Agency.

    P.S: North Korea supplies Russia with up to 40% of all the munitions used against Ukraine, according to the head of Ukraine's Military Intelligence.

    https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1944353539549004266
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 36,274
    Carnyx said:

    Tomorrow's papers

    Metro

    Politicians

    'We do not trust any of you'

    Least surprising comments by the public with serious loss of trust across the nation

    NOTA winner

    John Harris in the Graun was also considering the issue - if perhaps inevitably from a Glasto hook.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/13/glastonbury-england-silent-majority-politics
    Glastonbury isn't immediately the place I'd think of to get a representative sample of British voters.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Andy_JS said:

    Carnyx said:

    Tomorrow's papers

    Metro

    Politicians

    'We do not trust any of you'

    Least surprising comments by the public with serious loss of trust across the nation

    NOTA winner

    John Harris in the Graun was also considering the issue - if perhaps inevitably from a Glasto hook.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/13/glastonbury-england-silent-majority-politics
    Glastonbury isn't immediately the place I'd think of to get a representative sample of British voters.
    Representative sample of Guardian readers?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,176
    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    To those wanting someone prepared to walk the walk, my nieces are nine and six. Unless they want to be doctors, dentists, engineers etc., I shall be telling them not to go to university.

    Nice try but sorry - has to be your kids and in the here and now rather than many years hence.
    Thanks for that. That there are no children at my end is part of my reasoning. Have a good evening.
    I didn't mean to offend. Just the 2nd point then. It's years away at those ages.

    Cookie, despite his excellent answer, also fails. It's only with his eldest child where it's a 'here and now' matter, and she is going to uni with his blessing.
    I find this topic odd. Like, why do you doubt everyone's sincerity? I thought the left hate the grad tax? Yes, we agree!
    Hang on, where am I impugning anybody's sincerity?

    This is just an exercise to see if the view that uni is no longer worth it is evidenced by PBers steering their 16/17 year old children (or nieces and nephews) away from going.

    That's all. There's no finger pointing or snark here. It's research.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,176
    Chelsea are the beat team in the world then. That doesn't feel right.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    Also wild is Trump threatening to make US coffee 50% more expensive in an attempt to stop Brazil prosecuting Bolsanaro for his attempted coup*.

    Kevin Hassett completely bombs on ABC when pressed by Jon Karl to explain how Trump can possibly justify 50% tariffs on Brazil even though the country has a trade deficit with the US
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1944414570090475689

    *Literally Trump's rationale for the threatened tariff.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 36,274

    Just had my busiest Sunday since Christmas. I delivered 122 parcels, all for Amazon

    Hope you're delivering plenty of letters and postcards as well.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    kinabalu said:

    Chelsea are the beat team in the world then. That doesn't feel right.

    And yet Crystal Palace will still fancy their chances to win at their place on the opening day of the season in a a months tie.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,923
    edited July 13
    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    To those wanting someone prepared to walk the walk, my nieces are nine and six. Unless they want to be doctors, dentists, engineers etc., I shall be telling them not to go to university.

    Nice try but sorry - has to be your kids and in the here and now rather than many years hence.
    Thanks for that. That there are no children at my end is part of my reasoning. Have a good evening.
    I didn't mean to offend. Just the 2nd point then. It's years away at those ages.

    Cookie, despite his excellent answer, also fails. It's only with his eldest child where it's a 'here and now' matter, and she is going to uni with his blessing.
    I find this topic odd. Like, why do you doubt everyone's sincerity? I thought the left hate the grad tax? Yes, we agree!
    Hang on, where am I impugning anybody's sincerity?

    This is just an exercise to see if the view that uni is no longer worth it is evidenced by PBers steering their 16/17 year old children (or nieces and nephews) away from going.

    That's all. There's no finger pointing or snark here. It's research.
    The more I think about it, the more I think the anger will be the reverse of what you and others have expressed. It won't be that the middle classes tell others not to go to uni (whilst telling their own kids to go), it will be that middle class parents will have the confidence to tell their kids to swerve uni. You've got to be quite gutsy to go against the orthodoxy and the anger will be that it's the working classes who are the mugs.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited July 13
    Nigelb said:

    Also wild is Trump threatening to make US coffee 50% more expensive in an attempt to stop Brazil prosecuting Bolsanaro for his attempted coup*.

    Kevin Hassett completely bombs on ABC when pressed by Jon Karl to explain how Trump can possibly justify 50% tariffs on Brazil even though the country has a trade deficit with the US
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1944414570090475689

    *Literally Trump's rationale for the threatened tariff.

    They just obviously don't understand the new super complex tariff formula that definitely wasn't generated by ChatGPT....
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited July 13
    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    To those wanting someone prepared to walk the walk, my nieces are nine and six. Unless they want to be doctors, dentists, engineers etc., I shall be telling them not to go to university.

    Nice try but sorry - has to be your kids and in the here and now rather than many years hence.
    Thanks for that. That there are no children at my end is part of my reasoning. Have a good evening.
    I didn't mean to offend. Just the 2nd point then. It's years away at those ages.

    Cookie, despite his excellent answer, also fails. It's only with his eldest child where it's a 'here and now' matter, and she is going to uni with his blessing.
    I find this topic odd. Like, why do you doubt everyone's sincerity? I thought the left hate the grad tax? Yes, we agree!
    Hang on, where am I impugning anybody's sincerity?

    This is just an exercise to see if the view that uni is no longer worth it is evidenced by PBers steering their 16/17 year old children (or nieces and nephews) away from going.

    That's all. There's no finger pointing or snark here. It's research.
    The more I think about it, the more I think the anger will be the reverse of what you and others have expressed. It won't be that the middle classes tell others not to go to uni (whilst telling their own kids to go), it will be that middle class parents will have the confidence to tell their kids to swerve uni. You've got to be quite gutsy to go against the orthodoxy and the anger will be that it's the working classes who are the mugs.
    Actually its already happening to some extent. Sharp elbowed middle class parents are pushing little Johnny towards the better Degree Apprenticeships that offer a good salary from fairly early on.
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,490
    Andy_JS said:

    Just had my busiest Sunday since Christmas. I delivered 122 parcels, all for Amazon

    Hope you're delivering plenty of letters and postcards as well.
    Not on a Sunday
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223

    Nigelb said:

    Also wild is Trump threatening to make US coffee 50% more expensive in an attempt to stop Brazil prosecuting Bolsanaro for his attempted coup*.

    Kevin Hassett completely bombs on ABC when pressed by Jon Karl to explain how Trump can possibly justify 50% tariffs on Brazil even though the country has a trade deficit with the US
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1944414570090475689

    *Literally Trump's rationale for the threatened tariff.

    They just obviously don't understand the new super complex tariff formula that definitely wasn't generated by ChatGPT....
    Ken Hassett is a dead ringer for the energy vampire from What We Do in the Shadows.
    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7908628/mediaviewer/rm3454559488/
    (recommended)
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 36,274
    edited July 13
    Anyone know what the latest news is on Boris Roundabout [from 2021]?

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    "Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,588
    edited July 13
    Andy_JS said:

    Anyone know what the latest news is on Boris Roundabout [from 2021]?

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    "Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    Not totally sure, but I think its main proponent is no longer in a position to lobby for it ;)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    Andy_JS said:

    Anyone know what the latest news is on Boris Roundabout [from 2021]?

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    "Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    Yes.

    Apparently his treatment for manic delusion is going as well as can be expected.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Andy_JS said:

    Anyone know what the latest news is on Boris Roundabout [from 2021]?

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    "Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    Boris is now otherwise engaged giving it large in Italian Nightclubs.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,176
    Cookie said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    To those wanting someone prepared to walk the walk, my nieces are nine and six. Unless they want to be doctors, dentists, engineers etc., I shall be telling them not to go to university.

    Nice try but sorry - has to be your kids and in the here and now rather than many years hence.
    Thanks for that. That there are no children at my end is part of my reasoning. Have a good evening.
    I didn't mean to offend. Just the 2nd point then. It's years away at those ages.

    Cookie, despite his excellent answer, also fails. It's only with his eldest child where it's a 'here and now' matter, and she is going to uni with his blessing.
    I wouldn't say I've failed, ony that I've not succeeded yet. My oldest is only 15, the other two younger. We'll see where we are in 3, 5 and 8 years' time.
    Yes we will. Each will find their way, I'm sure, and your advice will be important in that.

    What's worrying me slightly now is that you (and perhaps other PBers in a similar position) will be unduly influenced by the need to pass this test I'm setting.

    I don't want that. So I'm not going to raise this again unless it's already the topic.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited July 13
    Diversity and inclusion experts can come to the UK on skilled work visas, The Telegraph can reveal. The Home Office has also safeguarded visa application routes for the vocations of poet and blogger on a list of protected occupations.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/diversity-inclusion-experts-skilled-work-visas-poet-blogger/

    Are bloggers still a thing? I imagine they might magically now be again.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has placed Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on an immediate "leave of absence" after allegations of links to organised crimes were made against him.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d6lzn733jo
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    The outer reaches of MAGA have turned against Trump, apparently.

    Steve Bannon: Do you believe the DOJ and the FBI have any credibility left to pursue the Epstein case?

    Guest: No. In 2016 we trusted the plan with Trump, but now Trump has become the deep state.*

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1944241432195141732

    *This is, of course, literally true, and unremarkable.
    That's how it works when you become president.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,176
    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    To those wanting someone prepared to walk the walk, my nieces are nine and six. Unless they want to be doctors, dentists, engineers etc., I shall be telling them not to go to university.

    Nice try but sorry - has to be your kids and in the here and now rather than many years hence.
    Thanks for that. That there are no children at my end is part of my reasoning. Have a good evening.
    I didn't mean to offend. Just the 2nd point then. It's years away at those ages.

    Cookie, despite his excellent answer, also fails. It's only with his eldest child where it's a 'here and now' matter, and she is going to uni with his blessing.
    I find this topic odd. Like, why do you doubt everyone's sincerity? I thought the left hate the grad tax? Yes, we agree!
    Hang on, where am I impugning anybody's sincerity?

    This is just an exercise to see if the view that uni is no longer worth it is evidenced by PBers steering their 16/17 year old children (or nieces and nephews) away from going.

    That's all. There's no finger pointing or snark here. It's research.
    The more I think about it, the more I think the anger will be the reverse of what you and others have expressed. It won't be that the middle classes tell others not to go to uni (whilst telling their own kids to go), it will be that middle class parents will have the confidence to tell their kids to swerve uni. You've got to be quite gutsy to go against the orthodoxy and the anger will be that it's the working classes who are the mugs.
    I think not - but it's an interesting twist to contemplate. It is the working class who often feel the brunt of big societal changes.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,176
    Nigelb said:

    The outer reaches of MAGA have turned against Trump, apparently.

    Steve Bannon: Do you believe the DOJ and the FBI have any credibility left to pursue the Epstein case?

    Guest: No. In 2016 we trusted the plan with Trump, but now Trump has become the deep state.*

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1944241432195141732

    *This is, of course, literally true, and unremarkable.
    That's how it works when you become president.

    It's welcome but I can't get too gleeful about it. It's all a bit late. He's in.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,118
    Nigelb said:

    The outer reaches of MAGA have turned against Trump, apparently.

    Steve Bannon: Do you believe the DOJ and the FBI have any credibility left to pursue the Epstein case?

    Guest: No. In 2016 we trusted the plan with Trump, but now Trump has become the deep state.*

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1944241432195141732

    *This is, of course, literally true, and unremarkable.
    That's how it works when you become president.

    Lots of people backed Trump for the Presidency because they thought that President Trump would give them what they wanted.

    What they all missed was that, once Trump was President, there's no way of making Trump do anything he doesn't want to do.

    It's a bit surprising that so many allegedly smart people missed that detail.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 25,165

    WFH even coming to digger drivers,

    A team of construction workers in China operating excavators remotely.
    https://x.com/orikron/status/1944472389649412487

    The Machine Stops...
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 5,060

    Nigelb said:

    Also wild is Trump threatening to make US coffee 50% more expensive in an attempt to stop Brazil prosecuting Bolsanaro for his attempted coup*.

    Kevin Hassett completely bombs on ABC when pressed by Jon Karl to explain how Trump can possibly justify 50% tariffs on Brazil even though the country has a trade deficit with the US
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1944414570090475689

    *Literally Trump's rationale for the threatened tariff.

    They just obviously don't understand the new super complex tariff formula that definitely wasn't generated by ChatGPT....
    I have a horrible feeling they are using the free tier, and never changed the drop-down from gpt-3.5-turbo.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Rachel Reeves is set to introduce a “new Big Bang” by slashing regulation on financial services next week

    She will tell banking bosses to “forget New York and Paris” and bring their staff to London or Leeds
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223

    Nigelb said:

    The outer reaches of MAGA have turned against Trump, apparently.

    Steve Bannon: Do you believe the DOJ and the FBI have any credibility left to pursue the Epstein case?

    Guest: No. In 2016 we trusted the plan with Trump, but now Trump has become the deep state.*

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1944241432195141732

    *This is, of course, literally true, and unremarkable.
    That's how it works when you become president.

    Lots of people backed Trump for the Presidency because they thought that President Trump would give them what they wanted.

    What they all missed was that, once Trump was President, there's no way of making Trump do anything he doesn't want to do.

    It's a bit surprising that so many allegedly smart people missed that detail.
    I never alleged anyone backing Trump was smart.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited July 13
    ohnotnow said:

    Nigelb said:

    Also wild is Trump threatening to make US coffee 50% more expensive in an attempt to stop Brazil prosecuting Bolsanaro for his attempted coup*.

    Kevin Hassett completely bombs on ABC when pressed by Jon Karl to explain how Trump can possibly justify 50% tariffs on Brazil even though the country has a trade deficit with the US
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1944414570090475689

    *Literally Trump's rationale for the threatened tariff.

    They just obviously don't understand the new super complex tariff formula that definitely wasn't generated by ChatGPT....
    I have a horrible feeling they are using the free tier, and never changed the drop-down from gpt-3.5-turbo.
    Starmer tweetbot is still on GPT2. It can only write in very short sentences.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 56,196

    Rachel Reeves is set to introduce a “new Big Bang” by slashing regulation on financial services next week

    She will tell banking bosses to “forget New York and Paris” and bring their staff to London or Leeds

    "The Ironing Lady"
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,659

    Having played chess at a young age, I know the transformational impact it can have on young people. That's why today we're allocating £1.5m to help identify, support, and elevate top-tier players who have the potential to compete at a global level.

    https://x.com/RachelReevesMP/status/1944447747957850512

    I am amazed that she has ever played chess. She seems unable to think more than one move ahead.
    There must be a silver-tongued chess-playing Treasury civil servant who has convinced Reeves and, before her, Rishi to subsidise the game.

    Typically of HM Treasury, they've not noticed you can play chess on your phone for free these days.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    The outer reaches of MAGA have turned against Trump, apparently.

    Steve Bannon: Do you believe the DOJ and the FBI have any credibility left to pursue the Epstein case?

    Guest: No. In 2016 we trusted the plan with Trump, but now Trump has become the deep state.*

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1944241432195141732

    *This is, of course, literally true, and unremarkable.
    That's how it works when you become president.

    It's welcome but I can't get too gleeful about it. It's all a bit late. He's in.
    Only the outer reaches...

    Those who say YES - "Do you think Donald Trump was involved in crimes allegedly committed by Jeffrey Epstein?"

    🟠 All: 40%

    🔵 Democrats: 69%
    ⚪ Independents: 41%
    🔴 Republicans: 7%

    https://x.com/USA_Polling/status/1944469851046907993
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 56,196

    Having played chess at a young age, I know the transformational impact it can have on young people. That's why today we're allocating £1.5m to help identify, support, and elevate top-tier players who have the potential to compete at a global level.

    https://x.com/RachelReevesMP/status/1944447747957850512

    I am amazed that she has ever played chess. She seems unable to think more than one move ahead.
    There must be a silver-tongued chess-playing Treasury civil servant who has convinced Reeves and, before her, Rishi to subsidise the game.

    Typically of HM Treasury, they've not noticed you can play chess on your phone for free these days.
    "£1.5m to help identify, support, and elevate top-tier players" sounds more like a subsidy for said civil servant's friends.
  • MustaphaMondeoMustaphaMondeo Posts: 336

    Omnium said:

    Two bits of "we're doomed, and probably deserve to be" news,

    A third of people in Britain now think the Covid pandemic was exaggerated to control people 🤯🤯

    And 22% think the moon landings were staged!

    One of many striking findings from new @moreincommonuk.bsky.social report on shattered Britain.

    https://bsky.app/profile/tomcalver.bsky.social/post/3lttkum2cok2r

    That Guardian article about AI tanking the graduate job market has an interesting comment from a recruitment consultant saying that the ability to read, write, and form an analysis without using the internet are now "elite skills." Wouldn't it be great if we had degree subjects that teach just that?

    https://bsky.app/profile/christopherpittard.bsky.social/post/3lttjrfxmdc2k

    Perhaps the result of AI is that we lose our intelligence.

    The owners of paper books will be king - they're the only people that can be even close to certain about facts.
    I'm currently (and slowly) slinging out my books. Even the recycling centre has given up on the idea of saving them for reuse and resale and now just directs people to the cardboard skip.

    But there is an interesting finding that AI makes programmers faster.

    Or so they think but in reality it slows them down.
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/11/ai_code_tools_slow_down/

    LOL. Scooped by rkrkrk with a different link to the same study.
    Got any old linux/unix/C stuff?
    Let me know if you have a wishlist. A complete (maybe) set of Stevens, for instance.
    I still can’t part with mine. Koenighan and Ritchie? Horstmann, the Gang of Four. Loved them so much.

    Lots ms tech that never quite worked. COM+, jeeze, my head. That got recycled.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,659

    Omnium said:

    Two bits of "we're doomed, and probably deserve to be" news,

    A third of people in Britain now think the Covid pandemic was exaggerated to control people 🤯🤯

    And 22% think the moon landings were staged!

    One of many striking findings from new @moreincommonuk.bsky.social report on shattered Britain.

    https://bsky.app/profile/tomcalver.bsky.social/post/3lttkum2cok2r

    That Guardian article about AI tanking the graduate job market has an interesting comment from a recruitment consultant saying that the ability to read, write, and form an analysis without using the internet are now "elite skills." Wouldn't it be great if we had degree subjects that teach just that?

    https://bsky.app/profile/christopherpittard.bsky.social/post/3lttjrfxmdc2k

    Perhaps the result of AI is that we lose our intelligence.

    The owners of paper books will be king - they're the only people that can be even close to certain about facts.
    I'm currently (and slowly) slinging out my books. Even the recycling centre has given up on the idea of saving them for reuse and resale and now just directs people to the cardboard skip.

    But there is an interesting finding that AI makes programmers faster.

    Or so they think but in reality it slows them down.
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/11/ai_code_tools_slow_down/

    LOL. Scooped by rkrkrk with a different link to the same study.
    Got any old linux/unix/C stuff?
    Let me know if you have a wishlist. A complete (maybe) set of Stevens, for instance.
    I still can’t part with mine. Koenighan and Ritchie? Horstmann, the Gang of Four. Loved them so much.

    Lots ms tech that never quite worked. COM+, jeeze, my head. That got recycled.
    Can we be revisionist about the Gang of Four? Design patterns and even OOP itself are questionable now. What are the useful parts of C++ for instance? C with namespaces!

    MS flavour of the month technologies could be lucrative for consultants and contractors, one such assured me, provided they could identify which ones would be around long enough to be widely adopted but short-lived so newbies did not learn them.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,659
    Today's sporting odds, too late to be of more than academic interest; best prices in the village were:-

    England to beat Wales 1/25
    Sinner at Wimbledon Evens
    Chelsea CWC 17/4
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 6,630

    Omnium said:

    Two bits of "we're doomed, and probably deserve to be" news,

    A third of people in Britain now think the Covid pandemic was exaggerated to control people 🤯🤯

    And 22% think the moon landings were staged!

    One of many striking findings from new @moreincommonuk.bsky.social report on shattered Britain.

    https://bsky.app/profile/tomcalver.bsky.social/post/3lttkum2cok2r

    That Guardian article about AI tanking the graduate job market has an interesting comment from a recruitment consultant saying that the ability to read, write, and form an analysis without using the internet are now "elite skills." Wouldn't it be great if we had degree subjects that teach just that?

    https://bsky.app/profile/christopherpittard.bsky.social/post/3lttjrfxmdc2k

    Perhaps the result of AI is that we lose our intelligence.

    The owners of paper books will be king - they're the only people that can be even close to certain about facts.
    I'm currently (and slowly) slinging out my books. Even the recycling centre has given up on the idea of saving them for reuse and resale and now just directs people to the cardboard skip.

    But there is an interesting finding that AI makes programmers faster.

    Or so they think but in reality it slows them down.
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/11/ai_code_tools_slow_down/

    LOL. Scooped by rkrkrk with a different link to the same study.
    Got any old linux/unix/C stuff?
    Let me know if you have a wishlist. A complete (maybe) set of Stevens, for instance.
    I still can’t part with mine. Koenighan and Ritchie? Horstmann, the Gang of Four. Loved them so much.

    Lots ms tech that never quite worked. COM+, jeeze, my head. That got recycled.
    Can we be revisionist about the Gang of Four? Design patterns and even OOP itself are questionable now. What are the useful parts of C++ for instance? C with namespaces!

    MS flavour of the month technologies could be lucrative for consultants and contractors, one such assured me, provided they could identify which ones would be around long enough to be widely adopted but short-lived so newbies did not learn them.
    Some of us thought they were questionable then. Or worse. Sitting out faddish technologies has not enriched me, but there we are.

    My favourite tech book:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modem-Sourcebook-Andrew-Margolis-1995-10-12/dp/B01HC0SFDE/

    Extraordinarily well-written.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Trump gatecrashing the trophy presentation and staying there after the handover with the likes of Cole Palmer basically going what's he doing here very surreal.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Donald Trump has formally accepted an invitation from King Charles III to join him and Queen Camilla for an unprecedented second state visit, Buckingham Palace has said.

    The US president will be accompanied by his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, for the trip - which is set to take place from 17 to 19 September - and will be hosted at Windsor Castle.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g25ne7gw6o
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 56,196
    https://x.com/disclosetv/status/1944540573001478255

    Trump: "I am very disappointed with President Putin."
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 6,630
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 14,622
    Nigelb said:

    That's a fairly remarkable stat.

    North Korea has supplied Russia with over 12 million artillery shells and 28,000 containers of weapons, according to a report by South Korean intelligence, cited by Yonhap News Agency.

    P.S: North Korea supplies Russia with up to 40% of all the munitions used against Ukraine, according to the head of Ukraine's Military Intelligence.

    https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1944353539549004266

    Yes. "North Korea". That is definitely where they all originated.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    A Palestinian woman has used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to access medical treatment in Britain, despite Government objections.

    The 69-year-old was allowed to enter the country to visit her daughter and receive private medical treatment for spinal and mental health conditions, after arguing that she had the right to a family life under article eight of the convention.

    The decision was made by an immigration judge, who rejected the Government’s argument that it could open the floodgates to similar claims from other conflict zones.

    The Home Office argued that it could lead to a “proliferation” of a “very large number” of applications for medical treatment in the UK from people living in Gaza and other war zones. It said this would “undermine” immigration controls and put pressure on stretched public services.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/palestinian-uses-echr-to-come-to-uk/
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 14,622

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Well, I put a tenner on England to win the test against India when we were 185-9. I got 7/2 and it's now 6/4 so I've got the value if not necessarily the result.

    Mrs Stodge will enjoy a fish and chip supper if the England bowlers do their bit.

    First hour is crucial. Two quick wickets and it could be over in a truce. No wicket before lunch and I think it’s game over. But could be enthralling. So muc( better than the fast food T20 rubbish.
    Autocorrect really is having a bad evening. It's first made Hyufd muddle compliment and complement and now suggested England and India will negotiate terms.
    The future is AI, as a certain knapper keeps (not) telling us.
    Rather a depressing article in the Graun. Basically all the job applications these days are the same because AI. Or so it claims. No longer a measure of personal competence.

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jul/13/student-debt-graduates-share-job-hunting-woes-ai-fallout
    Someone I worked with at a university many moons ago used to claim she marked coursework by throwing all the folders of work from the top of her stairs and the ones that landed furthest got a first.

    I was rather appalled at the time about unprofessionalism but given what we read about AI and students maybe she was years ahead of her time.
    When my mother was Head of Music at a grammar school she used to pay teenage Dura an impecunious amount to do her marking while she watched Coronation Street. I had no fucking idea what I was doing and generally just awarded marks based on neat presentation.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,588

    A Palestinian woman has used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to access medical treatment in Britain, despite Government objections.

    The 69-year-old was allowed to enter the country to visit her daughter and receive private medical treatment for spinal and mental health conditions, after arguing that she had the right to a family life under article eight of the convention.

    The decision was made by an immigration judge, who rejected the Government’s argument that it could open the floodgates to similar claims from other conflict zones.

    The Home Office argued that it could lead to a “proliferation” of a “very large number” of applications for medical treatment in the UK from people living in Gaza and other war zones. It said this would “undermine” immigration controls and put pressure on stretched public services.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/palestinian-uses-echr-to-come-to-uk/

    Root and branch reform of the immigration tribunal system is needed.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited 12:43AM
    RobD said:

    A Palestinian woman has used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to access medical treatment in Britain, despite Government objections.

    The 69-year-old was allowed to enter the country to visit her daughter and receive private medical treatment for spinal and mental health conditions, after arguing that she had the right to a family life under article eight of the convention.

    The decision was made by an immigration judge, who rejected the Government’s argument that it could open the floodgates to similar claims from other conflict zones.

    The Home Office argued that it could lead to a “proliferation” of a “very large number” of applications for medical treatment in the UK from people living in Gaza and other war zones. It said this would “undermine” immigration controls and put pressure on stretched public services.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/palestinian-uses-echr-to-come-to-uk/

    Root and branch reform of the immigration tribunal system is needed.
    I am not sure what the government can do, even if they wanted to do something.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited 12:51AM
    Paul Johnson saying the quiet bit out loud, people on £40-70k is where all the money is to get extra tax revenue and where the government will have to get it from. Also, if we could borrow at the rate German can, we would save £50bn a year, makes all dicking around with WFA and private school VAT in perspective.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWaTB5r8npQ

    But worst than that f##king Prof Peston still doing his 5 minutes to ask a single question.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited 12:58AM
    The number of people hunting for jobs in Britain surged in June at the fastest rate since the height of the Covid pandemic, industry figures show, amid growing business fears over tax rises and the economic outlook.

    In a survey of 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies, the REC found that permanent placements had dropped at the fastest pace in 22 months, alongside weaker levels of pay growth and reports of redundancies and reduced appetite for staff.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/14/job-hunters-uk-rise-june-fastest-covid-pandemic
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,659

    Paul Johnson saying the quiet bit out loud, people on £40-70k is where all the money is to get extra tax revenue and where the government will have to get it from. Also, if we could borrow at the rate German can, we would save £50bn a year, makes all dicking around with WFA and private school VAT in perspective.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWaTB5r8npQ

    But worst than that f##king Prof Peston still doing his 5 minutes to ask a single question.

    Paul Johnson, Oxford PPE.
    Robert Peston, Oxford PPE.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    What is Musk's advantage in AI ?
    I'm not really seeing one - the first mover advantage of Tesla and SpaceX doesn't exist - and his venture is burning a billion dollars a month.

    If you were a Tesla shareholder (I am not) would you vote for this ?

    ELON MUSK ANNOUNCED THAT TESLA SHAREHOLDERS WILL VOTE ON WHETHER THE COMPANY SHOULD INVEST IN HIS AI VENTURE, XAI. || MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WOULD HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IF IT WERE SOLELY HIS DECISION, AS XAI REPORTEDLY SEEKS A $200 BILLION VALUATION.
    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1944542730086170982

    Is he getting short of cash ?


  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 32,965
    HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    MattW said:

    Battlebus said:

    Jenrick is changing up his social media strategy:

    https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1944385240127967643

    Coming out as a Tory 'wet'
    Nowhere near his constituency.
    His main home is in Herefordshire.
    Isn't Leominster the location of his Wife's family's mansion?
    For those who don't remember, during the Covid pandemic he decided to ignore lockdown and travel between his various homes.

    More amusingly, he criticised the Reform candidate at the last election for living in Gedling, just outside the Newark constituency.

    He is an utter scumbag.
    'He is an utter scumbag', perhaps he might be ruthless enough to win a general election then? Certainly general election winners are by no means all Saints.
    It is however comparatively unusual for them to be utter scumbags. Blair, who hid it well, Wilson, who was slightly fortunate in his timing, Lloyd George due to unusual circumstances and perhaps Churchill, by a whisker.*

    After that I'm actually struggling. Most Prime Ministers are of course as you say, not saints but that's different from being genuinely dreadful human beings in the way Jenrick is. Such people tend to rather put voters off.

    *Autocorrect changed that to 'by a whiskey,' which still worked but wasn't what I meant.
    I am sure Boris will be delighted he is not in your 'utter scumbag' category
    I don’t think he has the patience or energy to be a genuine scumbag. He’s just an unpleasant buffoon.

    I’m intrigued that you think he is an ‘utter scumbag’ though. Damascene conversion?
    No I don't think that, 'unpleasant buffoon' is a relative complement for him coming from you
    If it helps, I'll go along with scumbag. Head and shoulders ahead of any Prime Minister until Farage or Jenrick.

    He sold his soul and the nation to climb the greasy pole.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited 4:45AM
    Nigelb said:

    What is Musk's advantage in AI ?
    I'm not really seeing one - the first mover advantage of Tesla and SpaceX doesn't exist - and his venture is burning a billion dollars a month.

    If you were a Tesla shareholder (I am not) would you vote for this ?

    ELON MUSK ANNOUNCED THAT TESLA SHAREHOLDERS WILL VOTE ON WHETHER THE COMPANY SHOULD INVEST IN HIS AI VENTURE, XAI. || MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WOULD HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IF IT WERE SOLELY HIS DECISION, AS XAI REPORTEDLY SEEKS A $200 BILLION VALUATION.
    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1944542730086170982

    Is he getting short of cash ?


    SpaceX, is set to inject $2 billion into xAI as part of its ongoing $5 billion capital raise.
    https://www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-to-invest-2-billion-into-elon-musks-xai-413934de

    They raised $10bn a month or so ago and already back to the well.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Crypto is pumping again....what wheeze are Team Trump up to now.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,198

    Rachel Reeves is set to introduce a “new Big Bang” by slashing regulation on financial services next week

    She will tell banking bosses to “forget New York and Paris” and bring their staff to London or Leeds

    I read that as indicating that she’s desperate for any sort of economic boost and has recently had her ear bent at some lush city dinner…
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 62,734

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Fishing said:

    I am struggling to write a thread in this heat.

    I hate the heat.

    Buy a fan. They are cheap, don't use much energy, don't dry the air out, unlike aircon, .
    Aircon via air sources heat pumps does not "dry the air out".
    I recently bought one of those Ranvoo neck aircon gadgets. It is very effective at cooling the neck and therefore brain and body but like all aircon, it vents hot air, in this case onto my ears.

    For £200, I'd not recommend it for that reason. Cheaper would be some sort of frozen tie-like material provided you do not wrap it all the way round and risk strangulation.
    ASHPs are only of utility if the hot air is vented outside.
    Yes and no. I mean yes, but this is for cooling the person, not the room, so the hot air only needs to be vented an inch or so away. However, in my case, this means warm ears. It is a shame because they are nice gadgets (perhaps a tad heavy). Conceptually, it is like cooling a CPU in a PC or laptop, or a fridge. Sure, heat is only transferred but for some purposes, that is enough.

    Here is one of several reviews on YouTube:-
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmXLKG_qWXM
    Maybe @Morris_Dancer knows something. Cooling drivers must be a major problem for the tech nerds running Formula 1 teams.
    Sadly, my tech knowledge for useful things is pretty much sod all.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,223
    What is going on at State ?
    What's the rationale (if any) behind firing so many of their highly experienced employees ? The "make it respond faster" reason is patent nonsense.

    A close friend was one of the US diplomats expelled from Russia in 2017 in retaliation for US sanctions. He’s also one of the over 1300 laid off from the State Dept. on Friday.

    He told me, “Putin gave me five days to leave. Rubio gave me five hours.”

    https://x.com/mattduss/status/1944466633667543453
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 32,965
    edited 5:09AM

    The number of people hunting for jobs in Britain surged in June at the fastest rate since the height of the Covid pandemic, industry figures show, amid growing business fears over tax rises and the economic outlook.

    In a survey of 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies, the REC found that permanent placements had dropped at the fastest pace in 22 months, alongside weaker levels of pay growth and reports of redundancies and reduced appetite for staff.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/14/job-hunters-uk-rise-june-fastest-covid-pandemic

    Goodness!

    You are like the Grim Reaper. Post after negative post about all the dreadful things this awful government is doing to the good people of Blighty. It is draining!

    So here it is, you win. "Bring back Boris! Bring back Truss! Bring back Boris! Bring back Truss!" God they were good!

    Let's rid ourselves of this shower and bring the A Team back. Bring back Boris, bring back Truss (and Kwarteng).
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    'I went to Gaza and this is what I saw' Middle East Expert On Unseen Horrors Of Gaza | Andrew Fox
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYmakox01nI

    Really interesting interview with somebody who knows what they are talking about. Plenty of criticism of IDF while insight into the what is going on.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 74,212
    Nigelb said:

    What is going on at State ?
    What's the rationale (if any) behind firing so many of their highly experienced employees ? The "make it respond faster" reason is patent nonsense.

    A close friend was one of the US diplomats expelled from Russia in 2017 in retaliation for US sanctions. He’s also one of the over 1300 laid off from the State Dept. on Friday.

    He told me, “Putin gave me five days to leave. Rubio gave me five hours.”

    https://x.com/mattduss/status/1944466633667543453

    He must be lying, as we all know there was no trouble between Russia and the US from 2017 to 2021. Trump said so.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    Energy secretary’s ‘radical truth-telling’ comes as Reform plans net zero bonfire and Tories also ditch targets

    In what is planned to be an annual event, the energy security and net zero secretary will make a “state of the climate” address to the Commons setting out the findings of a new Met Office-led report that says the UK is already facing extreme weather and its effects.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/14/ed-miliband-net-zero-betraying-future-generations
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 32,965
    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    What is going on at State ?
    What's the rationale (if any) behind firing so many of their highly experienced employees ? The "make it respond faster" reason is patent nonsense.

    A close friend was one of the US diplomats expelled from Russia in 2017 in retaliation for US sanctions. He’s also one of the over 1300 laid off from the State Dept. on Friday.

    He told me, “Putin gave me five days to leave. Rubio gave me five hours.”

    https://x.com/mattduss/status/1944466633667543453

    He must be lying, as we all know there was no trouble between Russia and the US from 2017 to 2021. Trump said so.
    I am on holiday and save for the dreadful SkyNews the only other English speaking channel is CNN. CNN are clearly bewildered after what happened last November. The anchors spend all day with talking heads attempting with little success to normalise the bizarre activities of the Trump "administration" (well it is no such thing it's just autocratic madness).

    They really don't know what has hit them do they?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 46,214

    Nigelb said:

    What is Musk's advantage in AI ?
    I'm not really seeing one - the first mover advantage of Tesla and SpaceX doesn't exist - and his venture is burning a billion dollars a month.

    If you were a Tesla shareholder (I am not) would you vote for this ?

    ELON MUSK ANNOUNCED THAT TESLA SHAREHOLDERS WILL VOTE ON WHETHER THE COMPANY SHOULD INVEST IN HIS AI VENTURE, XAI. || MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WOULD HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IF IT WERE SOLELY HIS DECISION, AS XAI REPORTEDLY SEEKS A $200 BILLION VALUATION.
    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1944542730086170982

    Is he getting short of cash ?


    SpaceX, is set to inject $2 billion into xAI as part of its ongoing $5 billion capital raise.
    https://www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-to-invest-2-billion-into-elon-musks-xai-413934de

    They raised $10bn a month or so ago and already back to the well.
    A lot of people are going to lost their shirts on this. Musk has already lost his sh*t...
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 32,965

    Energy secretary’s ‘radical truth-telling’ comes as Reform plans net zero bonfire and Tories also ditch targets

    In what is planned to be an annual event, the energy security and net zero secretary will make a “state of the climate” address to the Commons setting out the findings of a new Met Office-led report that says the UK is already facing extreme weather and its effects.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/14/ed-miliband-net-zero-betraying-future-generations

    God those Reformers and Tories are awesome. Tweaking the nose of Mother Nature! That'll teach her.

    Put another lump of Polish anthracite on the Rayburn.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538

    Nigelb said:

    What is Musk's advantage in AI ?
    I'm not really seeing one - the first mover advantage of Tesla and SpaceX doesn't exist - and his venture is burning a billion dollars a month.

    If you were a Tesla shareholder (I am not) would you vote for this ?

    ELON MUSK ANNOUNCED THAT TESLA SHAREHOLDERS WILL VOTE ON WHETHER THE COMPANY SHOULD INVEST IN HIS AI VENTURE, XAI. || MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WOULD HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IF IT WERE SOLELY HIS DECISION, AS XAI REPORTEDLY SEEKS A $200 BILLION VALUATION.
    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1944542730086170982

    Is he getting short of cash ?


    SpaceX, is set to inject $2 billion into xAI as part of its ongoing $5 billion capital raise.
    https://www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-to-invest-2-billion-into-elon-musks-xai-413934de

    They raised $10bn a month or so ago and already back to the well.
    A lot of people are going to lost their shirts on this. Musk has already lost his sh*t...
    Are you suggesting that hiring individuals on $200m deals might be a bubble.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 39,245

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    What is going on at State ?
    What's the rationale (if any) behind firing so many of their highly experienced employees ? The "make it respond faster" reason is patent nonsense.

    A close friend was one of the US diplomats expelled from Russia in 2017 in retaliation for US sanctions. He’s also one of the over 1300 laid off from the State Dept. on Friday.

    He told me, “Putin gave me five days to leave. Rubio gave me five hours.”

    https://x.com/mattduss/status/1944466633667543453

    He must be lying, as we all know there was no trouble between Russia and the US from 2017 to 2021. Trump said so.
    I am on holiday and save for the dreadful SkyNews the only other English speaking channel is CNN. CNN are clearly bewildered after what happened last November. The anchors spend all day with talking heads attempting with little success to normalise the bizarre activities of the Trump "administration" (well it is no such thing it's just autocratic madness).

    They really don't know what has hit them do they?
    The flipside of "the libs" not being able to comprehend Trump, is MAGA being completely unaware their guy was best buds with Epstein

    They are completely flummoxed
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,702
    edited 6:20AM

    Energy secretary’s ‘radical truth-telling’ comes as Reform plans net zero bonfire and Tories also ditch targets

    In what is planned to be an annual event, the energy security and net zero secretary will make a “state of the climate” address to the Commons setting out the findings of a new Met Office-led report that says the UK is already facing extreme weather and its effects.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/14/ed-miliband-net-zero-betraying-future-generations

    What's next? A huge stone listing everything that's wrong with the climate?

    Mad Ed apparently sees himself as a combination of Greta Thunberg and the American President. Pissing away billions we don't have on "climate aid" then this idiotic "State of the Climate Address".

    Too bad Starmer seems to have bottled sacking him.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,783
    edited 6:20AM

    A Palestinian woman has used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to access medical treatment in Britain, despite Government objections.

    The 69-year-old was allowed to enter the country to visit her daughter and receive private medical treatment for spinal and mental health conditions, after arguing that she had the right to a family life under article eight of the convention.

    The decision was made by an immigration judge, who rejected the Government’s argument that it could open the floodgates to similar claims from other conflict zones.

    The Home Office argued that it could lead to a “proliferation” of a “very large number” of applications for medical treatment in the UK from people living in Gaza and other war zones. It said this would “undermine” immigration controls and put pressure on stretched public services.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/palestinian-uses-echr-to-come-to-uk/

    If she’s paying (or someone else is paying) for her “private medical treatment”, and assuming she’s no drain on the public purse otherwise, that’s a net benefit to the economy, surely?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 32,965

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    kinabalu said:

    tlg86 said:

    To those wanting someone prepared to walk the walk, my nieces are nine and six. Unless they want to be doctors, dentists, engineers etc., I shall be telling them not to go to university.

    Nice try but sorry - has to be your kids and in the here and now rather than many years hence.
    Thanks for that. That there are no children at my end is part of my reasoning. Have a good evening.
    I didn't mean to offend. Just the 2nd point then. It's years away at those ages.

    Cookie, despite his excellent answer, also fails. It's only with his eldest child where it's a 'here and now' matter, and she is going to uni with his blessing.
    I find this topic odd. Like, why do you doubt everyone's sincerity? I thought the left hate the grad tax? Yes, we agree!
    Hang on, where am I impugning anybody's sincerity?

    This is just an exercise to see if the view that uni is no longer worth it is evidenced by PBers steering their 16/17 year old children (or nieces and nephews) away from going.

    That's all. There's no finger pointing or snark here. It's research.
    The more I think about it, the more I think the anger will be the reverse of what you and others have expressed. It won't be that the middle classes tell others not to go to uni (whilst telling their own kids to go), it will be that middle class parents will have the confidence to tell their kids to swerve uni. You've got to be quite gutsy to go against the orthodoxy and the anger will be that it's the working classes who are the mugs.
    Actually its already happening to some extent. Sharp elbowed middle class parents are pushing little Johnny towards the better Degree Apprenticeships that offer a good salary from fairly early on.
    I suspect degree apprenticeships are a decent way forward. Some of the university benefits with none of the debt.

    I don't believe that is what the PB Russell Group elitists are driving at. Keep the remaining universities "clean" for Tarquin to get his law degree and pupillage whilst Chardonnay (who otherwise would have read for a media studies degree at Worcester) starts on the bin lorry NVQ straight after her A level exams
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 1,259
    edited 6:24AM
    IanB2 said:

    Rachel Reeves is set to introduce a “new Big Bang” by slashing regulation on financial services next week

    She will tell banking bosses to “forget New York and Paris” and bring their staff to London or Leeds

    I read that as indicating that she’s desperate for any sort of economic boost and has recently had her ear bent at some lush city dinner…
    Or in the Treasury
    "What the UK economy needs is an inverted pyramid of securities all based on the mortgage repayments of a couple in Salford" or post Greensill an imaginary couple in an imaginary house. "The problem is regulators aren't capable of understanding sophisticated financial securities like these. Our auditors from (Big 4 accountants who've done a very incurious audit) have signed it all off"
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 32,965
    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    What is going on at State ?
    What's the rationale (if any) behind firing so many of their highly experienced employees ? The "make it respond faster" reason is patent nonsense.

    A close friend was one of the US diplomats expelled from Russia in 2017 in retaliation for US sanctions. He’s also one of the over 1300 laid off from the State Dept. on Friday.

    He told me, “Putin gave me five days to leave. Rubio gave me five hours.”

    https://x.com/mattduss/status/1944466633667543453

    He must be lying, as we all know there was no trouble between Russia and the US from 2017 to 2021. Trump said so.
    I am on holiday and save for the dreadful SkyNews the only other English speaking channel is CNN. CNN are clearly bewildered after what happened last November. The anchors spend all day with talking heads attempting with little success to normalise the bizarre activities of the Trump "administration" (well it is no such thing it's just autocratic madness).

    They really don't know what has hit them do they?
    The flipside of "the libs" not being able to comprehend Trump, is MAGA being completely unaware their guy was best buds with Epstein

    They are completely flummoxed
    What list? Epstein, wasn't he the Manager of the Beatles and Bill Clinton's buddy back in the sixties?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 46,214

    Nigelb said:

    What is Musk's advantage in AI ?
    I'm not really seeing one - the first mover advantage of Tesla and SpaceX doesn't exist - and his venture is burning a billion dollars a month.

    If you were a Tesla shareholder (I am not) would you vote for this ?

    ELON MUSK ANNOUNCED THAT TESLA SHAREHOLDERS WILL VOTE ON WHETHER THE COMPANY SHOULD INVEST IN HIS AI VENTURE, XAI. || MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WOULD HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IF IT WERE SOLELY HIS DECISION, AS XAI REPORTEDLY SEEKS A $200 BILLION VALUATION.
    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1944542730086170982

    Is he getting short of cash ?


    SpaceX, is set to inject $2 billion into xAI as part of its ongoing $5 billion capital raise.
    https://www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-to-invest-2-billion-into-elon-musks-xai-413934de

    They raised $10bn a month or so ago and already back to the well.
    A lot of people are going to lost their shirts on this. Musk has already lost his sh*t...
    Are you suggesting that hiring individuals on $200m deals might be a bubble.
    Nah, never. It's perfectly sane corruption business.

    (My bet is that there's a heck of a lot of corruption going on in the whole AI area. Like crypto, there are vast sums of money being 'invested' with little or no oversight.)
  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,615
    DougSeal said:

    A Palestinian woman has used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to access medical treatment in Britain, despite Government objections.

    The 69-year-old was allowed to enter the country to visit her daughter and receive private medical treatment for spinal and mental health conditions, after arguing that she had the right to a family life under article eight of the convention.

    The decision was made by an immigration judge, who rejected the Government’s argument that it could open the floodgates to similar claims from other conflict zones.

    The Home Office argued that it could lead to a “proliferation” of a “very large number” of applications for medical treatment in the UK from people living in Gaza and other war zones. It said this would “undermine” immigration controls and put pressure on stretched public services.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/palestinian-uses-echr-to-come-to-uk/

    If she’s paying (or someone else is paying) for her “private medical treatment”, and assuming she’s no drain on the public purse otherwise, that’s a net benefit to the economy, surely?
    Yep. It's the Telegraph log rolling an anti ECHR agenda with essentially no real justification. Right wing propaganda.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,538
    edited 6:34AM

    Nigelb said:

    What is Musk's advantage in AI ?
    I'm not really seeing one - the first mover advantage of Tesla and SpaceX doesn't exist - and his venture is burning a billion dollars a month.

    If you were a Tesla shareholder (I am not) would you vote for this ?

    ELON MUSK ANNOUNCED THAT TESLA SHAREHOLDERS WILL VOTE ON WHETHER THE COMPANY SHOULD INVEST IN HIS AI VENTURE, XAI. || MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WOULD HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IF IT WERE SOLELY HIS DECISION, AS XAI REPORTEDLY SEEKS A $200 BILLION VALUATION.
    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1944542730086170982

    Is he getting short of cash ?


    SpaceX, is set to inject $2 billion into xAI as part of its ongoing $5 billion capital raise.
    https://www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-to-invest-2-billion-into-elon-musks-xai-413934de

    They raised $10bn a month or so ago and already back to the well.
    A lot of people are going to lost their shirts on this. Musk has already lost his sh*t...
    Are you suggesting that hiring individuals on $200m deals might be a bubble.
    Nah, never. It's perfectly sane corruption business.

    (My bet is that there's a heck of a lot of corruption going on in the whole AI area. Like crypto, there are vast sums of money being 'invested' with little or no oversight.)
    I only recently found out that Microsoft have been struggling to scale their AI compute for OpenAI, so OpenAI have been making a lot of use of a 3rd party company, who have pivoted from being crypto mining firm whose only client is Microsoft / OpenAI.
  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,615
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    That's a fairly remarkable stat.

    North Korea has supplied Russia with over 12 million artillery shells and 28,000 containers of weapons, according to a report by South Korean intelligence, cited by Yonhap News Agency.

    P.S: North Korea supplies Russia with up to 40% of all the munitions used against Ukraine, according to the head of Ukraine's Military Intelligence.

    https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1944353539549004266

    Yes. "North Korea". That is definitely where they all originated.
    Which may explain the determination in CPC and PLA circles to bring Xi to heel before real damage is done ...
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