Enthralling finish in the women's cricket. Think my bet on India ought to be safe, but England giving it a damned good go. I'll be happy either way, tbh.
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
Listen to Jeremy Bowen on now. I haven't seen him as angry before. Some of the pictures of starvation would require a prosthetics department well out of the reach of any filmmakers in Gaza. You seem to have something of a minority view
There is no unbiased source of any view. Hamas says it's Israel, Israel says we're looking at it.
Bowen's (and many on PB's) view is that without question Hamas' account, and those who rely on Hamas, should be believed.
I have been pro Israel, and massively in support of the Jewish community in UK - I was brought up in a very Jewish part of London - all my life and I think both sides have committed (in ordinary, not international law language, as IANAE) war crimes. I think Hamas would commit many more war crimes if they could but operate under limitations.
I suppose where I differ from many is that it seems to me comprehensible why both sides have done so or are doing so. In just the same way I think Britain committed war crimes (in ordinary not legal language) in WWII. And I think it is comprehensible why we did. The human condition is not always great.
I think the issue at this moment is it's blindingly obvious why the Israelis are continuing to pound Gaza.
But it's not a good enough reason.
Rescuing hostages? Degrading Hamas? Yes, valid. Could have been done much more carefully, but it was understandable.
Saving the skin of one of the nastiest Fascists on the planet, not forgetting Trump, Putin, Xi, Modi and Duterte? No way is that a good enough reason for anything.
Agree. Finding things comprehensible is of course not the same as supporting or agreeing. I like civilization, and would like it to carry on. But a lot of 'this is incomprehensible' talk is just a front, done in order to render as alien the sorts of people who do these things and the context in which it is done.
Can't comprehend why people cross dangerous seas in small boats to arrive in the UK? Can't comprehend why people do tweets about setting fire to the dwellings of those same people? Welcome to the human race, welcome to our race that did Belsen and Dachau and the Gulag.
During his really heavy drinking Sharon Osbourne was really worried about him but had to go to New York for a week and took him to New York.
She left him wearing his underwear and took all his clothes from the hotel, she told the hotel staff to not provide him any alcohol.
First day she went to a meeting at 9am and left Ozzy in their room and came back absolutely pissed, she had a go at the hotel staff for providing him booze but they denied they provided him any booze.
This happened for the rest of the week, she left him in his undies and came back to find him absolutely pissed out of his tree.
At the end of the week, she asked him how have you been managing to get pissed all week, and Ozzy Osbourne said 'When you leave in the morning, I put on one of your dresses, and go to the gay bars and get pissed there.'
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
On what basis ? That the Israeli talking points it precisely pastes are verified by any other international source ?
You can have great faith in the Israeli government's view alone if you like, but it"s hardly a scientific process.
The GHF twitter feed seems genuine. Have you looked at it. But let's say you think it's all made up. That means you are privileging Hamas' account over all others. Is that a place you want to be.
I'm not really sure what you mean by genuine, there. It can be posted by someone who thinks it's true, in an organisation with a different office to the Isrseli government, and still essentially be a repaste of Israeli government press handouts.
We're going around in circles, here, as you're not accepting that the Guardian's report is sourced by anyone other than Hamas. Look at the sources for thr Guardian eport, again ; are Medecins sans Fromtieres , and the UN offices for Humanitarian Affairs in New York and Geneva, also part of Hamas ?
Lots of people don't want to lose their lucrative business in Gaza. We keep hearing reports of people being slaughtered but almost no footage. When everyone has a phone on them?
Roger et all can complain about the GHF distribution system but why do you think it is like that? Have you considered asking the question? Because under any other aid distribution system it all ends up being controlled by Hamas who then use it to retain their grip on power. Too many people get off on criticising Israel without considering what Israel are dealing with.
As for both sides are as bad as each other. Not they aren't. Hamas deliberately slaughtered a thousand innocents in a single day. They said they would like to do the same thing again and again. I have not seen any kind of similar massacre committed by the Israelis who have had far more opportunity to commit it. Whether or not they truly respect Gazans, they certainly show more regard for them than Hamas does to whom the people are just cannon fodder and useful pawns in their war. How can people be so angry with how Israel treats Gazans and so unconcerned with how Hamas treats them? That's what I find so strange.
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
On what basis ? That the Israeli talking points it precisely pastes are verified by any other international source ?
You can have great faith in the Israeli government's view alone if you like, but it"s hardly a scientific process.
The GHF twitter feed seems genuine. Have you looked at it. But let's say you think it's all made up. That means you are privileging Hamas' account over all others. Is that a place you want to be.
I'm not really sure what you mean by genuine, there. It can be posted by someone who thinks it's true, in an organisation with a different office to the Isrseli government, and still essentially be a repaste of Israeli government press handouts.
We're going around in circles, here, as you're not accepting that the Guardian's report is sourced by anyone other than Hamas. Look at the sources for thr Guardian eport, again ; are Medecins sans Fromtieres , and the UN offices for Humanitarian Affairs in New York and Geneva, also part of Hamas ?
Lots of people don't want to lose their lucrative business in Gaza. We keep hearing reports of people being slaughtered by almost no footage. When everyone has a phone on them?
Roger et all can complain about the GHF distribution system but why do you think it is like that? Have you considered asking the question? Because under any other aid distribution system it all ends up being controlled by Hamas who then use it to retain their grip on power. Too many people get off on criticising Israel without considering what Israel are dealing with.
As for both sides are as bad as each other. Not they aren't. Hamas deliberately slaughtered a thousand innocents in a single day. They said they would like to do the same thing again and again. I have not seen any kind of similar massacre committed by the Israelis who have had far more opportunity to commit it. Whether or not they truly respect Gazans, they certainly show more regard for them than Hamas does to whom the people are just cannon fodder and useful pawns in their war. How can people be so angry with how Israel treats Gazans and so unconcerned with how Hamas treats them? That's what I find so strange.
Don't tell me you are that dense?
Most people in Gaza don't have the ability to charge their phones for the last several months.
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
On what basis ? That the Israeli talking points it precisely pastes are verified by any other international source ?
You can have great faith in the Israeli government's view alone if you like, but it"s hardly a scientific process.
The GHF twitter feed seems genuine. Have you looked at it. But let's say you think it's all made up. That means you are privileging Hamas' account over all others. Is that a place you want to be.
I'm not really sure what you mean by genuine, there. It can be posted by someone who thinks it's true, in an organisation with a different office to the Isrseli government, and still essentially be a repaste of Israeli government press handouts.
We're going around in circles, here, as you're not accepting that the Guardian's report is sourced by anyone other than Hamas. Look at the sources for thr Guardian eport, again ; are Medecins sans Fromtieres , and the UN offices for Humanitarian Affairs in New York and Geneva, also part of Hamas ?
Lots of people don't want to lose their lucrative business in Gaza. We keep hearing reports of people being slaughtered by almost no footage. When everyone has a phone on them?
Roger et all can complain about the GHF distribution system but why do you think it is like that? Have you considered asking the question? Because under any other aid distribution system it all ends up being controlled by Hamas who then use it to retain their grip on power. Too many people get off on criticising Israel without considering what Israel are dealing with.
As for both sides are as bad as each other. Not they aren't. Hamas deliberately slaughtered a thousand innocents in a single day. They said they would like to do the same thing again and again. I have not seen any kind of similar massacre committed by the Israelis who have had far more opportunity to commit it. Whether or not they truly respect Gazans, they certainly show more regard for them than Hamas does to whom the people are just cannon fodder and useful pawns in their war. How can people be so angry with how Israel treats Gazans and so unconcerned with how Hamas treats them? That's what I find so strange.
Don't tell me you are that dense?
Most people in Gaza don't have the ability to charge their phones for the last several months.
When there is a bomb we immediately see footage from the site. Yet nothing at these aid distribution sites. Why?
During his really heavy drinking Sharon Osbourne was really worried about him but had to go to New York for a week and took him to New York.
She left him wearing his underwear and took all his clothes from the hotel, she told the hotel staff to not provide him any alcohol.
First day she went to a meeting at 9am and left Ozzy in their room and came back absolutely pissed, she had a go at the hotel staff for providing him booze but they denied they provided him any booze.
This happened for the rest of the week, she left him in his undies and came back to find him absolutely pissed out of his tree.
At the end of the week, she asked him how have you been managing to get pissed all week, and Ozzy Osbourne said 'When you leave in the morning, I put on one of your dresses, and go to the gay bars and get pissed there.'
I am not going to survive that. That's not going to work. I am moving from "I don't like this government" to "I will vote for anybody who will throw it out".
I thought you were in the 'old people are overprioritised' camp?
I don't think it matters what camp I'm in. Not everybody has a massive pension and like it or lump it I will be at least partly reliant on the state pension in my old age. We are not talking about disquiet about a political stance I disapprove of, we are talking about having to sell my flat or not being able to eat healthily. Due to some bad decisions I had some bite-lip prolonged periods of not-enough-money some decades ago and it took a lot of time and effort to crawl out of it. I really was not expecting to be plunged back into it by a Labour government that has catastrophically forgotten how to govern, and I won't have the resilience of my earlier years at 68.
On my 59th birthday I had every intention of working to age 65, the mandatory retirement age at my place of employment. But my father's condition deteriorated and I was obliged to take early retirement a few months before I was 60, the earliest age for normal retirement. Had those pension arrangements not been possible, I suppose my father would have had to be cared for in a residential or nursing home.
I'm thankful the financial provision for retirement was available. I’m very conscious that people in our situation nowadays will have much more difficulty making arrangements.
Won't happen anyway, Labour MPs would tell Starmer to either sack Reeves or they and Labour members will remove him and replace him with Rayner
Whatever your view of asylum seekers being housed in hotels this clearly is an awful way to treat visitors to our country.
Guests who have travelled, in some cases halfway around the world, have turned up today and been refused entry as Britannia are now housing asylum seekers and they were unaware of this.
During his really heavy drinking Sharon Osbourne was really worried about him but had to go to New York for a week and took him to New York.
She left him wearing his underwear and took all his clothes from the hotel, she told the hotel staff to not provide him any alcohol.
First day she went to a meeting at 9am and left Ozzy in their room and came back absolutely pissed, she had a go at the hotel staff for providing him booze but they denied they provided him any booze.
This happened for the rest of the week, she left him in his undies and came back to find him absolutely pissed out of his tree.
At the end of the week, she asked him how have you been managing to get pissed all week, and Ozzy Osbourne said 'When you leave in the morning, I put on one of your dresses, and go to the gay bars and get pissed there.'
You've chatted with Rick Wakeman? Respect.
Rick also to.d me this, but in my case it was via a chat show !
I think I am definitely in the minority that as a work-acholic and somebody who enjoys their work, I have no intention of retiring at 60 odd.
That's great and I hope you feel the same when you are 60 odd.
I'm getting up to that Beatles song later this year (although I am not losing my hair) and have no thought of retiring. Health permitting I will be working until my 70s. I like work, it keeps me alert (and the country needs lerts) and active. And golf, well, even Epstein knew that was a bad idea.
Would it be over simplistic to think that if Farage believes that a Reform government can cut crime in half, then his policy would be to have fewer prison places, not more?
I suppose the point is (i) you need to jail more people now to get crime down over the term of a government, so you need the places now even if you won't in four years; and (ii) you can repurpose the places as crime falls, either giving terms of imprisonment for less serious offences or for things like holding asylum seekers.
I mean, it's all obvious bollocks anyway, and the "halving crime" thing is plucked out of thin air. But presumably that's the argument.
I don't actually think it would be particularly hard to reduce crime significantly.
I don't think it requires some radical reshaping or our criminal justice system. I think it merely requires us to fund the police, lawyers and courts properly. So that people are more likely to get caught, prosecuted and punished.
It's the last that's the biggest problem, particularly for the "low level" crimes that make people's lives a misery, like burglary and drug dealing.
A lot of the time the local plod know who the local scrotes are, but can't be bothered to go and round them up so they can tie up the court system for half a day only to get a few hours community service and be back nicking stuff the following night.
Zero tolerance policing, prosecution and sentencing, with a "three strikes and it's 10 years inside" rule would rapidly put most of these persistent offenders inside for the long term, and crime would fall off a cliff.
It wouldn't be cheap because prison is expensive, but in the long run the reduced cost of crime would pay for it.
Note, I'm making no claim any of this is an effective deterrent to criminals, nor yet hoping that prison will reform them. My calculation is simply that once locked up, their crime rate tends to zero until you let them out, therefore the easiest way to have low crime is to lock up all the criminals.
Here's the thing: right now, if you were to commit a crime that was sufficiently serious for the Plot to really care, and it was incredibly obvious you were the perpatrator, well, it would still take years to come to trial, by which point the witnesses might have disappeared. So, you might as well wait it out, because there's a high chance that the trial won't ever happen.
And if you're a low level criminal, that got arrested for shoplifting, and then you got a trial date at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, well ... there's a high chance that Legal Aid won't be able to find a barrister who will represent you for the 65 quid they'll recieve (before costs) for turning up to represent you.
So, when you turn up at Court, the magistrates will note your lack of legal represenation and defer the trial to another date.
I think there's a tendency to rush straight for the 'we need harsher punishments' knob, when the biggest problem right now is that the whole process of getting people convicted has almost completely broken down.
It's not an either/or - justice should be being served, and served swiftly. But your perp being nicked for shoplifting should be a 5 minute job. Here's the bloke, here's a witness statement to say he was apprehended running out of the door with a bottle of whiskey in each hand, here's the CCTV. How do you plead Mr?
But part of the reason the court system is overloaded is it's full of frequent flyers coming back for this month's slap on the wrist.
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
Listen to Jeremy Bowen on now. I haven't seen him as angry before. Some of the pictures of starvation would require a prosthetics department well out of the reach of any filmmakers in Gaza. You seem to have something of a minority view
There is no unbiased source of any view. Hamas says it's Israel, Israel says we're looking at it.
Bowen's (and many on PB's) view is that without question Hamas' account, and those who rely on Hamas, should be believed.
I'm afraid the whole world have now taken a view. You need to listen to no others than British medics one of who was in tears on TV last night. The tide turned decisively when Theroux did his program on the settlers and almost overnight we saw the Israelis in a different light. It's difficult now to view those food queues and not wonder what it must feel like to queue for food from people who treat you like cattle and care not whether you live or die. If they had lined up a hundred puppies and shot them they couldn't make themselves look less inhuman
The whole world clearly hasn't taken a view, as shown by the fact it's still fairly 50/50 on here.
I rarely comment on Gaza as the indisputable horror of it all makes one despair, but it seems neither Israel or Hamas will stop, and the horrors will continue until they sit down and agree to a complete truce and release of prisoners
I know this is something @Roger and many others feel very strongly about, but unfortunately the 'whole world' has not taken a view, and it continues with no end in sight
I do wonder that with the full horrors and suffering in both Gaza and Ukraine featuring in every news broadcast, that the horrors are too much to bear and viewers just switch off the news and change to sport or tv shows or other media
One of the things I've been observing, with faint dismay, has been the media coverage Gaza has had - versus what's been happening in Sudan. I think about the only coverage I've semi-regularly come across has been via the World Service. But even their reporting is dwarfed by their Gaza.
I'm not trying to play them off or anything - but what's been going on in Sudan is astonishing. And from the regular news you'd not have heard a peep.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
Under Starmer's plans they'll have their chance to vote for one.
If our leaders had any sense of the bigger picture they'd see restoring the reputation of liberal democracy as an absolute imperative in the coming years.
During his really heavy drinking Sharon Osbourne was really worried about him but had to go to New York for a week and took him to New York.
She left him wearing his underwear and took all his clothes from the hotel, she told the hotel staff to not provide him any alcohol.
First day she went to a meeting at 9am and left Ozzy in their room and came back absolutely pissed, she had a go at the hotel staff for providing him booze but they denied they provided him any booze.
This happened for the rest of the week, she left him in his undies and came back to find him absolutely pissed out of his tree.
At the end of the week, she asked him how have you been managing to get pissed all week, and Ozzy Osbourne said 'When you leave in the morning, I put on one of your dresses, and go to the gay bars and get pissed there.'
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
I think I am definitely in the minority that as a work-acholic and somebody who enjoys their work, I have no intention of retiring at 60 odd.
That's great and I hope you feel the same when you are 60 odd.
I'm getting up to that Beatles song later this year (although I am not losing my hair) and have no thought of retiring. Health permitting I will be working until my 70s. I like work, it keeps me alert (and the country needs lerts) and active. And golf, well, even Epstein knew that was a bad idea.
Yes, and that is increasingly common in my line of work (apart from General Practice, where few are able to sustain the treadmill even to 60). I went part time last year, dropped off the on call rota, and have kept all the bits that I enjoy. I don't plan to keep it up forever as Mrs Foxy wants to retire to the IoW in a few years, but at present it suits me fine to be an Elder Statesman of the department, though far from the oldest.
It helps being in a job that is interesting, not too physically demanding, intellectually stimulating and really quite well paid.I appreciate that isn't true for many my age.
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
Whatever your view of asylum seekers being housed in hotels this clearly is an awful way to treat visitors to our country.
Guests who have travelled, in some cases halfway around the world, have turned up today and been refused entry as Britannia are now housing asylum seekers and they were unaware of this.
Have you ever stayed in a Britannia Hotel? They dodged a bullet there. They are known in the industry for sweating their assets - very little spend on upkeep.
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
He is going to put Obama, Hillary Clinton and Schiff in jail. Jerome Powell is a "numbskull" and all this is at a presser with Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. Trump likes Marcos (and his "great" late father).
Whatever your view of asylum seekers being housed in hotels this clearly is an awful way to treat visitors to our country.
Guests who have travelled, in some cases halfway around the world, have turned up today and been refused entry as Britannia are now housing asylum seekers and they were unaware of this.
Have you ever stayed in a Britannia Hotel? They dodged a bullet there. They are known in the industry for sweating their assets - very little spend on upkeep.
They also own Pontins so watch what happens.
I went to a Pontins once as a kid, got food poisoning first day, spent 3 days in the bathroom. What a holiday.
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
He is going to put Obama, Hillary Clinton and Schiff in jail. Jerome Powell is a "numbskull" and all this is at a presser with Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. Trump likes Marcos (and his "great" late father).
This is genuinely scary.
In 2016 he did campaign with the chant "lock her up!"
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
I think I am definitely in the minority that as a work-acholic and somebody who enjoys their work, I have no intention of retiring at 60 odd.
That's great and I hope you feel the same when you are 60 odd.
I'm getting up to that Beatles song later this year (although I am not losing my hair) and have no thought of retiring. Health permitting I will be working until my 70s. I like work, it keeps me alert (and the country needs lerts) and active. And golf, well, even Epstein knew that was a bad idea.
Yes, and that is increasingly common in my line of work (apart from General Practice, where few are able to sustain the treadmill even to 60). I went part time last year, dropped off the on call rota, and have kept all the bits that I enjoy. I don't plan to keep it up forever as Mrs Foxy wants to retire to the IoW in a few years, but at present it suits me fine to be an Elder Statesman of the department, though far from the oldest.
It helps being in a job that is interesting, not too physically demanding, intellectually stimulating and really quite well paid.I appreciate that isn't true for many my age.
I went 4 days a week 18 months ago, which taught me to amuse myself for an extra day per week. Retired in April at 60 and a couple of months (didn't want to retire in the middle of winter). Spent April on the piss to be honest, but since then have been to Bulgaria and Romania, spent a week walking up and down the fells, another week working at a beer festival, spent a weekend at a rock festival, and have booked six weeks away over Christmas and New Year (Malaysia, Cambodia and Singapore). Have to book something for Sept/Oct and plan to spend April in Vietnam. It is so liberating not to have to ask for time off.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
Also not.experienced the good times of a growing economy. You have basically had financial crash, "austerity", brevit, covid....
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
He is going to put Obama, Hillary Clinton and Schiff in jail. Jerome Powell is a "numbskull" and all this is at a presser with Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. Trump likes Marcos (and his "great" late father).
This is genuinely scary.
In 2016 he did campaign with the chant "lock her up!"
So yet another thing that Trump failed on.
As a diversion from the out of control Epstein fiasco I can see Trump and his cast of idiots like Tulsi and Bondi going after Obama and a heck of a lot of other political foes.
Every time I have been out drinking in Soho over past couple of years it has been busy. Thursday night is the new Friday particularly for those in creative industries. The pubs frequented by them have always been rammed when I have visited.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
They have had plenty of exposure to the Farage, far right agenda and it's cohort of cranks, crooks and cretins though, not to mention several years of the increasingly loathsome Trump.
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
He is going to put Obama, Hillary Clinton and Schiff in jail. Jerome Powell is a "numbskull" and all this is at a presser with Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. Trump likes Marcos (and his "great" late father).
This is genuinely scary.
In 2016 he did campaign with the chant "lock her up!"
So yet another thing that Trump failed on.
JD only needs to "persuade" 51% of the Cabinet that enough is enough.
During his really heavy drinking Sharon Osbourne was really worried about him but had to go to New York for a week and took him to New York.
She left him wearing his underwear and took all his clothes from the hotel, she told the hotel staff to not provide him any alcohol.
First day she went to a meeting at 9am and left Ozzy in their room and came back absolutely pissed, she had a go at the hotel staff for providing him booze but they denied they provided him any booze.
This happened for the rest of the week, she left him in his undies and came back to find him absolutely pissed out of his tree.
At the end of the week, she asked him how have you been managing to get pissed all week, and Ozzy Osbourne said 'When you leave in the morning, I put on one of your dresses, and go to the gay bars and get pissed there.'
I am not going to survive that. That's not going to work. I am moving from "I don't like this government" to "I will vote for anybody who will throw it out".
I note that no-one else apart from Craig Murray is reporting this. I also note that Mr Murray is responsible for a wide range of "interesting" theories including that the Salisbury poisonings were the work of British intelligence, or in other assertions, the Israelis. But absolutely not the Russian state despite Putin hosting the accused poisoners, where they joked about their trip to Salisbury.
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
Listen to Jeremy Bowen on now. I haven't seen him as angry before. Some of the pictures of starvation would require a prosthetics department well out of the reach of any filmmakers in Gaza. You seem to have something of a minority view
Whichever way you view it, Gaza is ethnic cleansing. It is quite remarkable that a couple of right wing Tories have blown the whistle on the complicity of a Labour, a Labour Government.
According to Trump Obama is going to jail for sedation ( I think he means sedition).
We all knew he was in rapid decline. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this rapid even allowing for his babbling about sharks and confusion over who his lawyers were.
He is going to put Obama, Hillary Clinton and Schiff in jail. Jerome Powell is a "numbskull" and all this is at a presser with Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. Trump likes Marcos (and his "great" late father).
This is genuinely scary.
In 2016 he did campaign with the chant "lock her up!"
So yet another thing that Trump failed on.
JD only needs to "persuade" 51% of the Cabinet that enough is enough.
51% of a cabinet that owes its jobs to Trump and most of whom are otherwise unemployable. Then they also need a 2/3 vote of both houses.
As neither of us is in Gaza we'll just have to flip a coin as to who is telling porkies.
That is not a rebuttal of the article.
Just Israeli governmental talking points.
From Topping? Surely not.
How do you know which version is true.
I would look at the comparative familiarity of fhe accounts, just to start with. The GHF thread looks almost identical to two years of Israeli press briefing, whereas the Guardian's report seems to include a lot of newer and more disparate details and sources of information, including by several aid agencies.
ie you have no idea.
Two year old repastes will be more inaccurate ; hence I have a good idea of the comparison, which was your question.
The GHF hasn't been distributing food for two years. But good to see you think Hamas is a trusted source. And the UN which has likely had to make "accommodation" to operate in Gaza.
But Hamas is clearly far from the only source of the Guardian report, whereas there's no evidence of ""GHF" contradicting the claims of the Israeli government at any time.
The GHF thread, on the other hand, is essentially just a cut and paste of countiess interviews given by ministers ovef the lasr two years when Israel itself was supposed to be managimg aid, with "Israel" substituted for the name of the organisation.
As I said, you have no idea of what is actually going on. The GHF sounds perfectly plausible to me.
Listen to Jeremy Bowen on now. I haven't seen him as angry before. Some of the pictures of starvation would require a prosthetics department well out of the reach of any filmmakers in Gaza. You seem to have something of a minority view
Whichever way you view it, Gaza is ethnic cleansing. It is quite remarkable that a couple of right wing Tories have blown the whistle on the complicity of a Labour, a Labour Government.
And those psychopathic cretins, including that plonker that walked out of an interview, Witkoff, or Witless or whatever he is called because it was so ridiculous to even suggest that Gaza was short of food, they just make me sick. Vile, vile people.
I am not going to survive that. That's not going to work. I am moving from "I don't like this government" to "I will vote for anybody who will throw it out".
I note that no-one else apart from Craig Murray is reporting this. I also note that Mr Murray is responsible for a wide range of "interesting" theories including that the Salisbury poisonings were the work of British intelligence, or in other assertions, the Israelis. But absolutely not the Russian state despite Putin hosting the accused poisoners, where they joked about their trip to Salisbury.
Maybe need a second source?
Craig Murray is the classic example of a sensible whistleblower who followed up by going full tonto promoting ever more insane conspiracy theories.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
They have had plenty of exposure to the Farage, far right agenda and it's cohort of cranks, crooks and cretins though, not to mention several years of the increasingly loathsome Trump.
Fascism can get normalized it seems.
Yes; so if you are 25, you think that Con and Lab have failed you, can't get done what they promise, and the democratic alternative in our system is the spivs of reform. So what is there about multi party democracy which tells you, from your experience so far, that you are not to look at any alternative ways of running a country? You might think that the rule of one of the heads of army, navy or air force wouldn't be any worse.
I am 70 and think it would be a disaster to abandon democracy. If I was 25 it may seem attractive.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
You're assuming it's mainly about economics. Maybe it's about crime?
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, food more reasonably priced, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here and everywhere, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted. It should be better than it is, but parts are still world-beating.
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted.
The population of London has overtaken New York City in recent years.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
You're assuming it's mainly about economics. Maybe it's about crime?
Not really my assumption, but anyway much the same thoughts apply. At 25 you don't have life experience reasons for avoiding every alternative to multi party democracy.
I have been having a somewhat technical debate this week, which may be quite important in how I can force removal of a barrier, about whether a physical separated-from-a-road footpath (eg behind some houses) can legally be both a Public Footpath (ie Right of Way) AND a Cycle Track (probably created under the 1984 Cycle Tracks Act), at the same time.
Don't ask about shared "cycling and walking paths" created by a local council, which may have been created by some route I do not understand, such as "put that sign there" from a manager, plus 35 years of continuing to exist.
His exhibit: A new cycle track built NEXT TO a Public Footpath because he thinks it is not doable.
My exhibit: Two signs on the same post, one for each type, pointing down the same physical pathway.
Where are the lawyers when you need them? Except that any expert lawyer will give me 4 similar but different answers, all of which contradict each other.
Next week: Which mobility aids exactly are legally part of "a pedestrian", and which ones have permissive rights, not legal rights, as an "usual accompaniment to a pedestrian", and which ones do not. on a Public Footpath?
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
You're assuming it's mainly about economics. Maybe it's about crime?
Not really my assumption, but anyway much the same thoughts apply. At 25 you don't have life experience reasons for avoiding every alternative to multi party democracy.
Did they ask any other questions like "If you were over 18 at the last GE did you vote?" Correlation between "can't be bothered" and "prefer a dictator" would be informative.
Channel migrant crossings ‘to double if Starmer crackdown fails’
The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is forecast to double this year unless new Government measures can curb the flow, independent modelling shows.
The research, by Richard Wood, one of Britain’s top modelling forecasters, takes account of not only weather and sea conditions but also includes asylum grant rates, illegal immigration flows into Europe and dinghy size
I think I am definitely in the minority that as a work-acholic and somebody who enjoys their work, I have no intention of retiring at 60 odd.
See I find this objectionable.....you do realise 90% of people don't get to choose they are just managed out in there mid to late 50's at never get another job?
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted.
The population of London has overtaken New York City in recent years.
Arbitrary bureaucratic boundaries. The metro area of New York is still much larger in population (20m vs 15m 2024 est).
Of course London would be much larger were it not for the Green Noose around its neck and decades of government policy to foster its decline.
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, food more reasonably priced, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here and everywhere, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted. It should be better than it is, but parts are still world-beating.
Channel migrant crossings ‘to double if Starmer crackdown fails’
The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is forecast to double this year unless new Government measures can curb the flow, independent modelling shows.
The research, by Richard Wood, one of Britain’s top modelling forecasters, takes account of not only weather and sea conditions but also includes asylum grant rates, illegal immigration flows into Europe and dinghy size
That will be the end of him, and probably of Labour, forever
I had supper tonight with a guy who is very senior in a role adjacent to MI5 and MI6, I can't go into more detail than that. He literally works alongside them in some huge hi tech building in REDACTED, his job is specifically terror-related as a REDACTED
He said they do amazing things every day, protecting us, but with all the migrants coming in, unvetted, and now all the Afghans - it all feels a bit pointless, and he's close to "giving up on the UK"
I think I am definitely in the minority that as a work-acholic and somebody who enjoys their work, I have no intention of retiring at 60 odd.
See I find this objectionable.....you do realise 90% of people don't get to choose they are just managed out in there mid to late 50's at never get another job?
Why do you find what I decide to do objectionable. I am not saying everybody else should as I do e.g. I work 7 days a week, normally 80-100hrs.
Italy were about 6/1 to win this match beforehand, which looked a bit odd at the time.
Very poor value as it turns out (assuming that excludes extra time etc).
I tend to prefer betting on the qualifier rather than the match as it takes the draw out of the equation. Was on Italy but backed England at 4-1 so now green either way…
I think I am definitely in the minority that as a work-acholic and somebody who enjoys their work, I have no intention of retiring at 60 odd.
See I find this objectionable.....you do realise 90% of people don't get to choose they are just managed out in there mid to late 50's at never get another job?
Whether you are right or not, and I hope you are not, there is nothing objectionable in what you are objecting to.
I am one of the fortunate ones too. I retired at 68 from something I loved doing. I keep carrying on in voluntary ways.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
They have had plenty of exposure to the Farage, far right agenda and it's cohort of cranks, crooks and cretins though, not to mention several years of the increasingly loathsome Trump.
Fascism can get normalized it seems.
Yes; so if you are 25, you think that Con and Lab have failed you, can't get done what they promise, and the democratic alternative in our system is the spivs of reform. So what is there about multi party democracy which tells you, from your experience so far, that you are not to look at any alternative ways of running a country? You might think that the rule of one of the heads of army, navy or air force wouldn't be any worse.
I am 70 and think it would be a disaster to abandon democracy. If I was 25 it may seem attractive.
Yet Reform only lead with over 45s, 25 year olds still mostly vote Labour and 25 year old women are more likely to vote Green than Reform and certainly don't want a general as head of government
I have been having a somewhat technical debate this week, which may be quite important in how I can force removal of a barrier, about whether a physical separated-from-a-road footpath (eg behind some houses) can legally be both a Public Footpath (ie Right of Way) AND a Cycle Track (probably created under the 1984 Cycle Tracks Act), at the same time.
Don't ask about shared "cycling and walking paths" created by a local council, which may have been created by some route I do not understand, such as "put that sign there" from a manager, plus 35 years of continuing to exist.
His exhibit: A new cycle track built NEXT TO a Public Footpath because he thinks it is not doable.
My exhibit: Two signs on the same post, one for each type, pointing down the same physical pathway.
Where are the lawyers when you need them? Except that any expert lawyer will give me 4 similar but different answers, all of which contradict each other.
Next week: Which mobility aids exactly are legally part of "a pedestrian", and which ones have permissive rights, not legal rights, as an "usual accompaniment to a pedestrian", and which ones do not. on a Public Footpath?
Cycleway near us has a green footpath sign, it runs between industrial estates and scrubland, nowhere near a road. No separation markings or at least none that are still visible. Plenty of dual use pavements as well.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
They have had plenty of exposure to the Farage, far right agenda and it's cohort of cranks, crooks and cretins though, not to mention several years of the increasingly loathsome Trump.
Fascism can get normalized it seems.
Yes; so if you are 25, you think that Con and Lab have failed you, can't get done what they promise, and the democratic alternative in our system is the spivs of reform. So what is there about multi party democracy which tells you, from your experience so far, that you are not to look at any alternative ways of running a country? You might think that the rule of one of the heads of army, navy or air force wouldn't be any worse.
I am 70 and think it would be a disaster to abandon democracy. If I was 25 it may seem attractive.
It would only be attractive to a 25 year old who hasn't read any history whatsoever.
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted.
The population of London has overtaken New York City in recent years.
Arbitrary bureaucratic boundaries. The metro area of New York is still much larger in population (20m vs 15m 2024 est).
Of course London would be much larger were it not for the Green Noose around its neck and decades of government policy to foster its decline.
This is using the same boundaries that have existed for both cities since 1965. For the vast majority of that time NYC had the higher population.
GB News: 38% of young people think Britain would be better off under a "military strongman".
While to me this is obviously troubling, perhaps one should stop a moment and ask a question. If you are 25 and born in 2000, you were 8 during the financial crisis, since when UK politics has been in trouble with the well known consequences.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
They have had plenty of exposure to the Farage, far right agenda and it's cohort of cranks, crooks and cretins though, not to mention several years of the increasingly loathsome Trump.
Fascism can get normalized it seems.
Yes; so if you are 25, you think that Con and Lab have failed you, can't get done what they promise, and the democratic alternative in our system is the spivs of reform. So what is there about multi party democracy which tells you, from your experience so far, that you are not to look at any alternative ways of running a country? You might think that the rule of one of the heads of army, navy or air force wouldn't be any worse.
I am 70 and think it would be a disaster to abandon democracy. If I was 25 it may seem attractive.
It would only be attractive to a 25 year old who hasn't read any history whatsoever.
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted.
The population of London has overtaken New York City in recent years.
Arbitrary bureaucratic boundaries. The metro area of New York is still much larger in population (20m vs 15m 2024 est).
Of course London would be much larger were it not for the Green Noose around its neck and decades of government policy to foster its decline.
US city populations can be really tricky to assess e.g. where does LA start and stop? They often talk about "metro area", but that doesn't necessarily include millions who live beyond those boundaries.
Soho totally buzzing tonight. Groucho swinging and rocking. Who are these gloomsters doing the capital down?
London is BACK
An American friend is staying in town and he told me at great length how much better London is to visit than New York (he lives in LA).
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted.
The population of London has overtaken New York City in recent years.
Greater London = 8,776,535 (2021) NYC = 8,258,035 (2023)
One thing that always strikes me about NYC, you don't have to go that far north of the city and it absolutely back country with f##k all people living there.
US city populations can be really tricky to assess e.g. where does LA start and stop? They often talk about "metro area", but that doesn't necessarily include millions who live beyond those boundaries.
US city populations can be really tricky to assess e.g. where does LA start and stop? They often talk about "metro area", but that doesn't necessarily include millions who live beyond those boundaries.
I got LA down as 3,820,914 (2023).
Greater LA is more like 18 million, and you won't know you have left a city.driving between those areas.
I've got the following down on my Anglosphere spreadsheet:
London ENG 8,776,535 2021 New York NY 8,258,035 2023 Sydney NSW 4,698,656 2021 Melbourne VIC 4,585,537 2021 Los Angeles CA 3,820,914 2023 Toronto Ontario 2,794,356 2021 Chicago IL 2,664,452 2023 Houston TX 2,314,157 2023 Brisbane QLD 2,287,896 2021 Perth WA 2,043,762 2021 Montréal QC 1,762,949 2021 Phoenix AZ 1,650,070 2023 Philadelphia PA 1,550,542 2023 San Antonio TX 1,495,295 2023 Auckland NZ 1,440,300 2022 San Diego CA 1,388,320 2023 Calgary Alberta 1,306,784 2021 Dallas TX 1,302,868 2023 Dublin IRE 1,263,219 2022 Adelaide SA 1,245,011 2021 Birmingham ENG 1,121,408 2021 Ottawa Ontario 1,017,449 2021 Edmonton, Alberta 1,010,899 2021
One of the great advantages of London, over NYC, is that in London you are less than 3 hours from Paris, Barcelona., Amsterdam, Berlin, Venice, Madrid., Florence., Dublin, Rome, Lisbon... or the Alps, the Black Forest, the Dolomites, the Norwegian fjords, the Hebrides, the Lakes, Pyrenees, Corsica, and on and on
An incredible and peerless wealth
2 hours from New York puts you in... Baltimore. Or Toronto
Channel migrant crossings ‘to double if Starmer crackdown fails’
The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is forecast to double this year unless new Government measures can curb the flow, independent modelling shows.
The research, by Richard Wood, one of Britain’s top modelling forecasters, takes account of not only weather and sea conditions but also includes asylum grant rates, illegal immigration flows into Europe and dinghy size
That will be the end of him, and probably of Labour, forever
I had supper tonight with a guy who is very senior in a role adjacent to MI5 and MI6, I can't go into more detail than that. He literally works alongside them in some huge hi tech building in REDACTED, his job is specifically terror-related as a REDACTED
He said they do amazing things every day, protecting us, but with all the migrants coming in, unvetted, and now all the Afghans - it all feels a bit pointless, and he's close to "giving up on the UK"
Well assuming it is not Michael Shrimpton.
So the security services are so good that the politicians think they can be complacent?
Comments
I'll be happy either way, tbh.
Can't comprehend why people cross dangerous seas in small boats to arrive in the UK? Can't comprehend why people do tweets about setting fire to the dwellings of those same people? Welcome to the human race, welcome to our race that did Belsen and Dachau and the Gulag.
During his really heavy drinking Sharon Osbourne was really worried about him but had to go to New York for a week and took him to New York.
She left him wearing his underwear and took all his clothes from the hotel, she told the hotel staff to not provide him any alcohol.
First day she went to a meeting at 9am and left Ozzy in their room and came back absolutely pissed, she had a go at the hotel staff for providing him booze but they denied they provided him any booze.
This happened for the rest of the week, she left him in his undies and came back to find him absolutely pissed out of his tree.
At the end of the week, she asked him how have you been managing to get pissed all week, and Ozzy Osbourne said 'When you leave in the morning, I put on one of your dresses, and go to the gay bars and get pissed there.'
Roger et all can complain about the GHF distribution system but why do you think it is like that? Have you considered asking the question? Because under any other aid distribution system it all ends up being controlled by Hamas who then use it to retain their grip on power. Too many people get off on criticising Israel without considering what Israel are dealing with.
As for both sides are as bad as each other. Not they aren't. Hamas deliberately slaughtered a thousand innocents in a single day. They said they would like to do the same thing again and again. I have not seen any kind of similar massacre committed by the Israelis who have had far more opportunity to commit it. Whether or not they truly respect Gazans, they certainly show more regard for them than Hamas does to whom the people are just cannon fodder and useful pawns in their war. How can people be so angry with how Israel treats Gazans and so unconcerned with how Hamas treats them? That's what I find so strange.
"@ElectionMapsUK
Westminster Voting Intention:
RFM: 29% (+6)
LAB: 23% (-3)
CON: 17% (-7)
LDM: 14% (=)
GRN: 9% (+2)
Via @JLPartnersPolls, 17-18 Jul.
Changes w/ 6-9 Mar (!)."
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1947620655815331902
Most people in Gaza don't have the ability to charge their phones for the last several months.
Guests who have travelled, in some cases halfway around the world, have turned up today and been refused entry as Britannia are now housing asylum seekers and they were unaware of this.
Disgusting.
https://x.com/archrose90/status/1947691139076669494?s=61
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lVdMbUx1_k
Black Sabbath's original video performance of the song "Black Sabbath"
But part of the reason the court system is overloaded is it's full of frequent flyers coming back for this month's slap on the wrist.
I'm not trying to play them off or anything - but what's been going on in Sudan is astonishing. And from the regular news you'd not have heard a peep.
If our leaders had any sense of the bigger picture they'd see restoring the reputation of liberal democracy as an absolute imperative in the coming years.
https://youtube.com/shorts/42OanuYaC30?si=meJgg1w2SCYedfOC
It helps being in a job that is interesting, not too physically demanding, intellectually stimulating and really quite well paid.I appreciate that isn't true for many my age.
They also own Pontins so watch what happens.
London is BACK
This is genuinely scary.
Authoritarian strongman wear out their welcome very quickly, even Oliver Cromwell.
So yet another thing that Trump failed on.
The question is this: What experience does a 25 year old have of liberal multi party democracy, parliament, democratic government, the theory of the rule of law and the post WWII social democratic consensus which would lead them to think that it is incomparably all for the best in the best of all possible worlds and that nothing else is worth a try?
Not much, I would guess.
Fascism can get normalized it seems.
Maybe need a second source?
I am 70 and think it would be a disaster to abandon democracy. If I was 25 it may seem attractive.
Would have been superb if that was his statement.
"Vapid bilge", please.
Cleaner, people friendlier, the summer weather less humid, the Underground safer and more user-friendly, the things to do more much cheaper and more interesting, food more reasonably priced, etc. etc.
So despite all the complaining on here and everywhere, we still have some things going for us on this battered old island and we shouldn't take them for granted. It should be better than it is, but parts are still world-beating.
I have been having a somewhat technical debate this week, which may be quite important in how I can force removal of a barrier, about whether a physical separated-from-a-road footpath (eg behind some houses) can legally be both a Public Footpath (ie Right of Way) AND a Cycle Track (probably created under the 1984 Cycle Tracks Act), at the same time.
Don't ask about shared "cycling and walking paths" created by a local council, which may have been created by some route I do not understand, such as "put that sign there" from a manager, plus 35 years of continuing to exist.
His exhibit: A new cycle track built NEXT TO a Public Footpath because he thinks it is not doable.
My exhibit: Two signs on the same post, one for each type, pointing down the same physical pathway.
Where are the lawyers when you need them? Except that any expert lawyer will give me 4 similar but different answers, all of which contradict each other.
Next week: Which mobility aids exactly are legally part of "a pedestrian", and which ones have permissive rights, not legal rights, as an "usual accompaniment to a pedestrian", and which ones do not. on a Public Footpath?
Correlation between "can't be bothered" and "prefer a dictator" would be informative.
1-1
{adjusts monocle and rattles a copy of the Times from 1887}
(Were you inspired by Psmith in your youth, as well?)
The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is forecast to double this year unless new Government measures can curb the flow, independent modelling shows.
The research, by Richard Wood, one of Britain’s top modelling forecasters, takes account of not only weather and sea conditions but also includes asylum grant rates, illegal immigration flows into Europe and dinghy size
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/22/channel-migrant-crossings-to-double/
Of course London would be much larger were it not for the Green Noose around its neck and decades of government policy to foster its decline.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/blue-note-jazz-soho-st-martins-hotel-licensing-met-police-b1210679.html
Short version - the Met claim that a Jazz club will lead to a spike in crime. And objected, therefore to the club
The Peruvian police would have been on this like a tramp on chips - setup a series of traps, catch some criminals.
I had supper tonight with a guy who is very senior in a role adjacent to MI5 and MI6, I can't go into more detail than that. He literally works alongside them in some huge hi tech building in REDACTED, his job is specifically terror-related as a REDACTED
He said they do amazing things every day, protecting us, but with all the migrants coming in, unvetted, and now all the Afghans - it all feels a bit pointless, and he's close to "giving up on the UK"
I am one of the fortunate ones too. I retired at 68 from something I loved doing. I keep carrying on in voluntary ways.
45s, 25 year olds still mostly
vote Labour and 25 year old
women are more likely to vote
Green than Reform and certainly don't want a general as head of government
Plenty of dual use pavements as well.
NYC = 8,258,035 (2023)
Let's hope they are better than last time.
An incredible and peerless wealth
2 hours from New York puts you in... Baltimore. Or Toronto
So the security services are so good that the politicians think they can be complacent?