That's going to be an easy one for the police to deal with. Attempted GBH as a minimum charge I would have thought...
It'll be interesting if the CPS does the usual and downgrades the charge to assault or something like that. Or actually charges the crime.
This has Lucy Connolly written all over it. "A patriot prosecuted for their patriotism".
This one looks a bit more blatant...
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
Off thread: a vignette from drop off of my Y6 daughter (10) at school this morning - around 8 children, crowded around, looking at a thing (it was reported that this was a 'cube puzzle' - I never saw it, such was the scrum around it. Laughter, shouts of advice, 10 year old witticisms. Ubiquitous smiles. 10 yards away, the one child in the class who has been given a smartphone, standing alone, scrolling, blankly.
Ironically if Reeves as expected does hit landlords, second home owners, shareholders and business owners and those with fat private pensions with tax in the Budget that might shore up her position with Labour backbenchers. That would then make it more difficult for Starmer to remove her
Starmer to emphasise all the pro growth decisions he has made including Gatwick's second runway
Add in 1.5 million homes and yet all these announcements mirror Johnson's 40 new hospitals, which were announced but reality kicked in and they became a mirage
After yesterday's Farage performance, where on earth are we going to find the labour force and expertise even without these nasty policies
Has anyone tried to get a plumber, electrician, or builder to do a job for them, as either they are unavailable before next year or submit a ridiculous price and as an example I wanted a minor change to our bathroom at an expected cost of £1,500 and the cheapest quote was £3,200 !!!
We're getting our downstairs shower room redone for just over 7k.
Starmer to emphasise all the pro growth decisions he has made including Gatwick's second runway
Add in 1.5 million homes and yet all these announcements mirror Johnson's 40 new hospitals, which were announced but reality kicked in and they became a mirage
After yesterday's Farage performance, where on earth are we going to find the labour force and expertise even without these nasty policies
Has anyone tried to get a plumber, electrician, or builder to do a job for them, as either they are unavailable before next year or submit a ridiculous price and as an example I wanted a minor change to our bathroom at an expected cost of £1,500 and the cheapest quote was £3,200 !!!
We are approaching a crisis of human economic purpose, with mass under / unemployment due to displacement by automation.
I see it as an imperative to get ahead of this by reducing the low skilled working age population now. I am thrilled that we have a mainstream party that appears to realise the urgency of the moment.
Mass automation is decades away, and Farage's nasty and divisive policy creating fear and dismay in millions of people, and their families, who have made their homes here is sick
You seem very sure of that. And I do not blame you, because we have developed to predict the future based on the past and to extrapolate linearly rather than exponentially. But you are wrong.
A great many low skilled (and skilled) jobs are going to be destroyed very soon. What does the migrant from the Sahel do for work in the uk, when the low skilled jobs with Uber, Deliveroo, Macdonalds and Amazon have been almost entirely automated? When it comes, this is going to happen astonishingly suddenly. And the day might not be too far away.
To what extent will this be mitigated by new jobs in areas providing this automation?
The UK's addiction to cheap labour puts us in exactly the wrong place - I think of the time I saw about 8 blokes manhandling a huge glass section up a scaffold. In France, the first thing they put up on a domestic site is a mini crane.
The fruit picking jobs will go the way of potato picking - the machines are already in real world use/trials. Delivery will either get hammered by a crackdown on illegal working and/or the automation of driving.
Amazon is well on the way to creating dark warehouses - warehouses without lights, because the robots don't need them.
Uber - it's their business plan to get rid of the drivers. See Waymo and others moving out from the US. There are 100% automated vehicles being tested on the UK roads, now.
McDonalds actually plan to move staff out of the kitchen and into the front. To use the automation to increase service quality on the front end.
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
Technology change, too.
Fireplaces are effectively obsolete antiques. As is non-dishwasher/microwave tableware.
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
As Elon pointed out (before going loopy) - your product will be replaced by a better one. The only choice is whether you make the better product or a competitor does.
Western companies used to do this. See Boeing - which used to bet the company on the next thing. The last time they did that was probably the 747.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
Pro-tip for tech furniture. Instead of computer desks, use dining tables which are better-looking, more sturdily built, have enough depth so the screen is not under your nose, and don't have drawers which are completely pointless in the paperless office and restrict legroom. They are also available for peanuts.
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Of course there will be elections. Although the model might change.
That nice Mr Putin has been remarkably successful in Russia's free and fair elections.
This. America is too advanced to simply cancel the elections. They will find ways to subvert or suspend the ones they can't win whilst holding the bright red states as proof that had the ANTIFAcrats not suspended the elections in blue states then he would have won those as well.
They can't as blue states run their elections and largely have Democrats in power as do some purple states
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
While both things have cratered in price, they could have a limited future as status symbols, since those with houses large enough for the furniture, and domestic labour to do the dishes, can make ostentation out of the impracticality.
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
With the fireplaces it was as much about practicality as fashion. Fireplaces used non-stop for heating were dirty and you had to shovel coal about. Gas central heating and radiators was clean and automated. A chimney was then just an away of creating a draft. Add that to wanting sleek modernism...
Now we have much better home insulation and draft reduction. The log burner is a fashion statement.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I think it is a very sad story to many of my age group, but sadly for Wedgwood and other products of their golden era times, tastes have changed but they didn't
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
With the fireplaces it was as much about practicality as fashion. Fireplaces used non-stop for heating were dirty and you had to shovel coal about. Gas central heating and radiators was clean and automated. A chimney was then just an away of creating a draft. Add that to wanting sleek modernism...
Now we have much better home insulation and draft reduction. The log burner is a fashion statement.
Unless you have a big garden with a fair number of trees in it.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Projectors are very good now.
Autohiding TVs that drop into the floor or slide down in the foot of a bed are a thing, if you want one.
The flexible screens at TV size are about 5 years off, IIRC.
Off thread: a vignette from drop off of my Y6 daughter (10) at school this morning - around 8 children, crowded around, looking at a thing (it was reported that this was a 'cube puzzle' - I never saw it, such was the scrum around it. Laughter, shouts of advice, 10 year old witticisms. Ubiquitous smiles. 10 yards away, the one child in the class who has been given a smartphone, standing alone, scrolling, blankly.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
Pro-tip for tech furniture. Instead of computer desks, use dining tables which are better-looking, more sturdily built, have enough depth so the screen is not under your nose, and don't have drawers which are completely pointless in the paperless office and restrict legroom. They are also available for peanuts.
Seems a bit of overkill just to have somewhere to put your bowl of peanuts.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Perhaps but often the telly is the fashion and/or status item these days, so why hide it?
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
Your premise isn't true, business investment was running at between 4% and 8% YoY growth in the run up and immediately after the election. It's Labour that caused it to crash to 0.1% YoY, all of the uncertainty and shit tax policies have made business go into survival mode rather than growth oriented.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
With the fireplaces it was as much about practicality as fashion. Fireplaces used non-stop for heating were dirty and you had to shovel coal about. Gas central heating and radiators was clean and automated. A chimney was then just an away of creating a draft. Add that to wanting sleek modernism...
Now we have much better home insulation and draft reduction. The log burner is a fashion statement.
Unless you have a big garden with a fair number of trees in it.
Or live in an area where you are prone to power cuts. An increasingly common occurrence in many rural areas.
That's going to be an easy one for the police to deal with. Attempted GBH as a minimum charge I would have thought...
It'll be interesting if the CPS does the usual and downgrades the charge to assault or something like that. Or actually charges the crime.
This has Lucy Connolly written all over it. "A patriot prosecuted for their patriotism".
This one looks a bit more blatant...
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
That's interesting - thank-you. Better information than my original source; I made a couple of wrong assumptions (there's a reminder). Thanks for the correction.
I think a few prosecutions would be helpful to nip it in the bud, just as a few rapid prosecutions choked the far right riots in 2024.
In my area flags are just being left alone, but I don't think we have too many of the violent hardcore on day release from a zoo - if we did Lee Anderson's demo would have been more out of hand. If one went up on the telegraph pole outside my house, it would be coming down pronto.
There are more threatening videos around, but also I think some of them are in the same fake bracket as eg fake car clamping videos, which is SM types wanting clicks.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
We have a problem in our small town. The central area was built 1600 -1850, often in rows, so there 200 or so houses which cannot have garages. It's called the march of time!
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
It is the same mentality that drives many private equity investments. Load the company with debt. Close R&D. Sweat existing assets for a few years until it's driven into the ground. Rinse and repeat. I imagine it is taught in American business schools, as MBAs are more valued over there. Has anyone noticed that Old Trafford is a near-anagram of Thames Water?
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Except that the Supreme Court would find that Obama was in fact born outside the USA.
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally. The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
Off thread: a vignette from drop off of my Y6 daughter (10) at school this morning - around 8 children, crowded around, looking at a thing (it was reported that this was a 'cube puzzle' - I never saw it, such was the scrum around it. Laughter, shouts of advice, 10 year old witticisms. Ubiquitous smiles. 10 yards away, the one child in the class who has been given a smartphone, standing alone, scrolling, blankly.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Projectors are very good now.
Autohiding TVs that drop into the floor or slide down in the foot of a bed are a thing, if you want one.
The flexible screens at TV size are about 5 years off, IIRC.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Projectors are very good now.
Autohiding TVs that drop into the floor or slide down in the foot of a bed are a thing, if you want one.
The flexible screens at TV size are about 5 years off, IIRC.
My experience is that projectors have a high faff quotient* - and, though it's not an issue for me at the moment, mounting the screen in rentals is a pain. We watch enough streaming that getting rid of the screen and sticking to a laptop or tablet isn't practical but I do resent the presence of a huge black slab that lurks in the corner for 95% of my evenings. If nothing else, it'd be nice to put bookcases or more pictures there.
*and thus often S.O. unfriendly.
And bedroom TVs just feel like you've given up on something.
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally. The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
Remind them all today is 24 weeks exactly to the Cheltenham Festival.
Off thread: a vignette from drop off of my Y6 daughter (10) at school this morning - around 8 children, crowded around, looking at a thing (it was reported that this was a 'cube puzzle' - I never saw it, such was the scrum around it. Laughter, shouts of advice, 10 year old witticisms. Ubiquitous smiles. 10 yards away, the one child in the class who has been given a smartphone, standing alone, scrolling, blankly.
Rubic's cube?
I don't think it was, from the context of someone 'missing a piece'. But it could have been. I quite enjoyed not being able to know, actually.
Off thread: a vignette from drop off of my Y6 daughter (10) at school this morning - around 8 children, crowded around, looking at a thing (it was reported that this was a 'cube puzzle' - I never saw it, such was the scrum around it. Laughter, shouts of advice, 10 year old witticisms. Ubiquitous smiles. 10 yards away, the one child in the class who has been given a smartphone, standing alone, scrolling, blankly.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Most Grand Designs houses, if they have a TV at all, have ones that pop up and down out of a piece of furniture. More seriously as screens can show anything, is there a market for a wall hung TV that shows family photos, great art etc when not in use as a TV? Or even just chameleon's into the wall?
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Our problem in the West isn't that the established car makers didn't innovate, but that - Tesla aside - all the new EV car makers are Chinese. What's wrong with Western economies that we don't have startup EV car companies, or that they failed to scale, failed to attract investment, or didn't create cars people wanted to buy?
It is fine for established companies to fail, as long as you have a healthy turnover of new companies to replace them.
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally. The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
And on the other side the multi billionaire far right backers of Tommy Robinson. Quite chilling
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
With the fireplaces it was as much about practicality as fashion. Fireplaces used non-stop for heating were dirty and you had to shovel coal about. Gas central heating and radiators was clean and automated. A chimney was then just an away of creating a draft. Add that to wanting sleek modernism...
Now we have much better home insulation and draft reduction. The log burner is a fashion statement.
Unless you have a big garden with a fair number of trees in it.
In cold weather an ever diminishing number of trees.
That's going to be an easy one for the police to deal with. Attempted GBH as a minimum charge I would have thought...
It'll be interesting if the CPS does the usual and downgrades the charge to assault or something like that. Or actually charges the crime.
This has Lucy Connolly written all over it. "A patriot prosecuted for their patriotism".
This one looks a bit more blatant...
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
That's interesting - thank-you. Better information than my original source; I made a couple of wrong assumptions (there's a reminder). Thanks for the correction.
I think a few prosecutions would be helpful to nip it in the bud, just as a few rapid prosecutions choked the far right riots in 2024.
In my area flags are just being left alone, but I don't think we have too many of the violent hardcore on day release from a zoo - if we did Lee Anderson's demo would have been more out of hand. If one went up on the telegraph pole outside my house, it would be coming down pronto.
There are more threatening videos around, but also I think some of them are in the same fake bracket as eg fake car clamping videos, which is SM types wanting clicks.
Might be a different incident- people do insist on copying what they see on screens.
Here, the council are trying to ignore the flags as well- which will be fine until they start to look tatty. That's not enough for the latest Rosindellgram, which has "we're livid at other councils taking flags down" as its top story.
A while back I dislocated my shoulder - and, it turns out, my elbow (*). Physio exercises are part of the recovery, for which I need a plain section of wall to stand against.
It's just that, in our four bedroom house, there are only two short sections of wall that are not covered by windows, radiators, doors, furniture, pictures, etc, etc. And one of them is not suitable because of lack of legroom.
I don't think we're particularly cluttered; I think it may just be the fact we're in a relatively small new build.
(*) A hint for other posters: don't do a couple of triathlons days after dislocating your shoulder. Not the wisest decision I have ever made...
A while back I dislocated my shoulder - and, it turns out, my elbow (*). Physio exercises are part of the recovery, for which I need a plain section of wall to stand against.
It's just that, in our four bedroom house, there are only two short sections of wall that are not covered by windows, radiators, doors, furniture, pictures, etc, etc. And one of them is not suitable because of lack of legroom.
I don't think we're particularly cluttered; I think it may just be the fact we're in a relatively small new build.
(*) A hint for other posters: don't do a couple of triathlons days after dislocating your shoulder. Not the wisest decision I have ever made...
And so you join the list of triathlon and ultra event runners I vaguely know who have screwed their bodies up by doing such things
If you think about all the drone innovation in the Ukraine War it's mostly coming from new companies. It's not from established companies like BAe or Rhinemetall.
For example, Firepoint, the Ukrainian manufacturer of the new flamingo cruise missile was a company founded in 2022 in response to the renewed Russian invasion.
Off thread: a vignette from drop off of my Y6 daughter (10) at school this morning - around 8 children, crowded around, looking at a thing (it was reported that this was a 'cube puzzle' - I never saw it, such was the scrum around it. Laughter, shouts of advice, 10 year old witticisms. Ubiquitous smiles. 10 yards away, the one child in the class who has been given a smartphone, standing alone, scrolling, blankly.
As another parent of a Year 6 child who's been pestering us for a smartphone for some time, this is a good tale to read. We'd previously said we'd get him one for starting secondary school. Right now, I think he can wait till he can afford it himself!
A while back I dislocated my shoulder - and, it turns out, my elbow (*). Physio exercises are part of the recovery, for which I need a plain section of wall to stand against.
It's just that, in our four bedroom house, there are only two short sections of wall that are not covered by windows, radiators, doors, furniture, pictures, etc, etc. And one of them is not suitable because of lack of legroom.
I don't think we're particularly cluttered; I think it may just be the fact we're in a relatively small new build.
(*) A hint for other posters: don't do a couple of triathlons days after dislocating your shoulder. Not the wisest decision I have ever made...
And so you join the list of triathlon and ultra event runners I vaguely know who have screwed their bodies up by doing such things
When I was running regularly I saw a number of other runners go down the route of massively increasing their weekly mileage, then seeing gains in fitness, so increasing again etc, up to 100+ miles a week (which is serious marathoner distance) and then breaking down, followed by taking up cycling...
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Most Grand Designs houses, if they have a TV at all, have ones that pop up and down out of a piece of furniture. More seriously as screens can show anything, is there a market for a wall hung TV that shows family photos, great art etc when not in use as a TV? Or even just chameleon's into the wall?
We have one because we got a ridiculously good clearance deal on an older model. The art display looks very impressive but I don't actually use it that much as I don't see the point of having the TV on when I'm not watching it
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Our problem in the West isn't that the established car makers didn't innovate, but that - Tesla aside - all the new EV car makers are Chinese. What's wrong with Western economies that we don't have startup EV car companies, or that they failed to scale, failed to attract investment, or didn't create cars people wanted to buy?
It is fine for established companies to fail, as long as you have a healthy turnover of new companies to replace them.
Two related problems, one was the Chinese massively subsidising electric vehicle production, and the other was Western governments pushing the technology before it was ready and with poorly-targeted subsidies. Difficult to know which was the chicken and which was the egg.
Video of automotive journalist Harry Metcalfe talking about recent discussions on the European car market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCrrA9ju0g The European manufacturers are already announcing redundancies, and think it’s potentially existential for the European car industry. People are not buying new cars, they’re keeping what they have already.
I have a lot of antique furniture in my modern house because (a) it is really good value; (b) very well made; and (c) is beautiful.
Also mixing old and new objects can work very well, if well chosen. They can enhance each other and make you look at objects afresh.
We should teach our children how to look at objects and the natural world properly and with care. Good design enhances life. And by "good design" I don't mean overpriced tat by designers who think beige is a colour but objects that work well for their intended use and have some sense of harmony in their design.
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
A small local matter: there are proposals to build more houses (cunningly, this will be on a farmer's field prone to flooding). Access will be difficult. The 'plan', if approved, is apparently to use a certain lane for access. Said lane is deemed too small by the council for a bin lorry to go up, so the residents have to wheel their bins down to the bottom of the lane. Furthermore, reaching the field would require hacking down an ancient hedge brimming with wildlife.
Schrodinger's Lane: too narrow for a bin lorry, easily wide enough for construction vehicles and building materials.
[This is especially stupid as there's an existing road that leads directly to the farmer's field. Access would, however, require opening the gate.]
Nope - access would require the builders to purchase the ransom strip that that gate is on...
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Most Grand Designs houses, if they have a TV at all, have ones that pop up and down out of a piece of furniture. More seriously as screens can show anything, is there a market for a wall hung TV that shows family photos, great art etc when not in use as a TV? Or even just chameleon's into the wall?
Fairly sure I've seen this on YouTube but Sainsbury's calls so no time to search. The basics have been around for some time but now you can have a large screen showing separate pictures or looped videos of different family members, each boxed by physical frames hiding the magic telly.
A while back I dislocated my shoulder - and, it turns out, my elbow (*). Physio exercises are part of the recovery, for which I need a plain section of wall to stand against.
It's just that, in our four bedroom house, there are only two short sections of wall that are not covered by windows, radiators, doors, furniture, pictures, etc, etc. And one of them is not suitable because of lack of legroom.
I don't think we're particularly cluttered; I think it may just be the fact we're in a relatively small new build.
(*) A hint for other posters: don't do a couple of triathlons days after dislocating your shoulder. Not the wisest decision I have ever made...
And so you join the list of triathlon and ultra event runners I vaguely know who have screwed their bodies up by doing such things
I actually dislocated my shoulder (*) changing the bedding! I've always known I've got double-jointed (hypermobile) elbows; I've only just found out that my shoulders are also slightly hypermobile. All the years of hiking with big packs on, and I only find out when I'm in my fifties...
(*) Actually a subluxation, as it went straight back in.
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally. The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
It may not be my cup of tea, but I am quite content for people to live the lives they want to live and celebrate that life however they see fit so long as it doesn't negatively impact on me. The "difficulties" used to be that gay and bi people used to have the sh*t kicked out of them for being different. Hopefully that is no longer the case.
We celebrate celebration on here. Flags of St George for example. We just let those celebrating to get on with it, so I don't suppose you or I have to do anything other than nod approvingly.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Projectors are very good now.
Autohiding TVs that drop into the floor or slide down in the foot of a bed are a thing, if you want one.
The flexible screens at TV size are about 5 years off, IIRC.
My experience is that projectors have a high faff quotient* - and, though it's not an issue for me at the moment, mounting the screen in rentals is a pain. We watch enough streaming that getting rid of the screen and sticking to a laptop or tablet isn't practical but I do resent the presence of a huge black slab that lurks in the corner for 95% of my evenings. If nothing else, it'd be nice to put bookcases or more pictures there.
*and thus often S.O. unfriendly.
And bedroom TVs just feel like you've given up on something.
I've used a projector for about 20 years. It has a slight faff quotient to connect a laptop to it and the speakers but the WAF is good because it sits on a shelf in position but out of the way.
I think the faff quotient is an advantage. The slight barrier to watching something reduces the likelihood of watching rubbish just because it is there.
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Crushing defeat to whom?
The Lib Dems if they can find a Macron, otherwise Reform.
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Except that the Supreme Court would find that Obama was in fact born outside the USA.
Hawaii is certainly not outside the USA and the Democrats would likely still run him anyway given he has already been twice elected and ruled constitutionally eligible. If the Democrats control most states legislatures and governorships after the midterms next year he would then likely be on most ballots too
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Our problem in the West isn't that the established car makers didn't innovate, but that - Tesla aside - all the new EV car makers are Chinese. What's wrong with Western economies that we don't have startup EV car companies, or that they failed to scale, failed to attract investment, or didn't create cars people wanted to buy?
It is fine for established companies to fail, as long as you have a healthy turnover of new companies to replace them.
Two related problems, one was the Chinese massively subsidising electric vehicle production, and the other was Western governments pushing the technology before it was ready and with poorly-targeted subsidies. Difficult to know which was the chicken and which was the egg.
Video of automotive journalist Harry Metcalfe talking about recent discussions on the European car market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCrrA9ju0g The European manufacturers are already announcing redundancies, and think it’s potentially existential for the European car industry. People are not buying new cars, they’re keeping what they have already.
Two more related problems are that used cars last longer so there is less replacement pressure, and the prestige of established brands now attaches to EV-ness itself.
A new consequence, incidentally, is that da yoof are happy to learn on automatics, as reported last week:-
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Except that the Supreme Court would find that Obama was in fact born outside the USA.
Hawaii is certainly not outside the USA and the Democrats would likely still run him anyway given he has already been twice elected and ruled constitutionally eligible
Kenya is though.
I believe you are still operating to pre-2016 norms.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I'm sure there are lots of people who are still interested in Wedgwood products.
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Crushing defeat to whom?
The Lib Dems if they can find a Macron, otherwise Reform.
Depends on tactical voting, 30% for Reform is certainly not enough to win a majority if LD, Green and Labour voters tactically vote against Farage
That's going to be an easy one for the police to deal with. Attempted GBH as a minimum charge I would have thought...
It'll be interesting if the CPS does the usual and downgrades the charge to assault or something like that. Or actually charges the crime.
This has Lucy Connolly written all over it. "A patriot prosecuted for their patriotism".
This one looks a bit more blatant...
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I'm sure there are lots of people who are still interested in Wedgwood products.
Because we were passing we went to the Wedgwood museum last year - given the lack of visitors and the excitement amongst the staff of us turning up and being interested - I do wonder if the V&A regret taking it over
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Except that the Supreme Court would find that Obama was in fact born outside the USA.
Hawaii is certainly not outside the USA and the Democrats would likely still run him anyway given he has already been twice elected and ruled constitutionally eligible
Kenya is though.
I believe you are still operating to pre-2016 norms.
He wasn't born in Kenya, as I also said if the Democrats control most state legislatures and governorships after next year then Obama would be on all their states ballots whatever the SC said.
Though such states are likely to not vote to change the constitution to allow a Trump third term run in any case and he needs both Congress and 2/3 of states to vote to change the constitution to enable him to run for a third term
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Crushing defeat to whom?
The Lib Dems if they can find a Macron, otherwise Reform.
Depends on tactical voting, 30% for Reform is certainly not enough to win a majority if LD, Green and Labour voters tactically vote against Farage
Tactical voting on the centre left won't work if Labour remain as popular as they are now.
Your bunch need to get out there and blame Farage for assisting your lot to break everything. And to call out his links to Trump and his gushing appraisal of Putin.
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Obama can't win Calvinball against the Supreme Court. I think it's unlikely to happen but if it does it could look something like this:
- Republicans push some spurious legal theory about the term limits not being real. After they've all been saying it for a while it becomes a disputed fact and the media start to report it as "Democrats say presidents are limited to two terms, Republicans say they aren't". - Trump runs in the GOP primary and wins. Some Dem states try to keep him off the ballot, Republicans write him in and award him their delegates - When a Dem state tries to keep him off the national ballot, it goes to SCOTUS and SCOTUS rule that it's not up to the states to decide who is and isn't eligible. They already decided this way over insurrection. - If he wins the election, they rule that he's eligible.
Obama doesn't get to run if this happens, because the Dems don't think he's eligible, and in any case if he won, SCOTUS would rule that he wasn't eligible.
That's going to be an easy one for the police to deal with. Attempted GBH as a minimum charge I would have thought...
It'll be interesting if the CPS does the usual and downgrades the charge to assault or something like that. Or actually charges the crime.
This has Lucy Connolly written all over it. "A patriot prosecuted for their patriotism".
This one looks a bit more blatant...
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
That's interesting - thank-you. Better information than my original source; I made a couple of wrong assumptions (there's a reminder). Thanks for the correction.
I think a few prosecutions would be helpful to nip it in the bud, just as a few rapid prosecutions choked the far right riots in 2024.
In my area flags are just being left alone, but I don't think we have too many of the violent hardcore on day release from a zoo - if we did Lee Anderson's demo would have been more out of hand. If one went up on the telegraph pole outside my house, it would be coming down pronto.
There are more threatening videos around, but also I think some of them are in the same fake bracket as eg fake car clamping videos, which is SM types wanting clicks.
Might be a different incident- people do insist on copying what they see on screens.
Here, the council are trying to ignore the flags as well- which will be fine until they start to look tatty. That's not enough for the latest Rosindellgram, which has "we're livid at other councils taking flags down" as its top story.
It's the identical video, included in the company statement on linked-in.
Someone had branded it Council worker, and I did not check.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Projectors are very good now.
Autohiding TVs that drop into the floor or slide down in the foot of a bed are a thing, if you want one.
The flexible screens at TV size are about 5 years off, IIRC.
My experience is that projectors have a high faff quotient* - and, though it's not an issue for me at the moment, mounting the screen in rentals is a pain. We watch enough streaming that getting rid of the screen and sticking to a laptop or tablet isn't practical but I do resent the presence of a huge black slab that lurks in the corner for 95% of my evenings. If nothing else, it'd be nice to put bookcases or more pictures there.
*and thus often S.O. unfriendly.
And bedroom TVs just feel like you've given up on something.
I've used a projector for about 20 years. It has a slight faff quotient to connect a laptop to it and the speakers but the WAF is good because it sits on a shelf in position but out of the way.
I think the faff quotient is an advantage. The slight barrier to watching something reduces the likelihood of watching rubbish just because it is there.
The faff used to be in setup - you needed to run cables, put it in a sound proof yet ventilated box (noise) etc etc.
The latest projectors are very quiet - and have WiFi/Airplay/other standards built in.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I’m writing a piece on this theme. THE ASTONISHING CHEAPNESS OF LOVELY OLD THINGS
That's going to be an easy one for the police to deal with. Attempted GBH as a minimum charge I would have thought...
It'll be interesting if the CPS does the usual and downgrades the charge to assault or something like that. Or actually charges the crime.
This has Lucy Connolly written all over it. "A patriot prosecuted for their patriotism".
This one looks a bit more blatant...
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Crushing defeat to whom?
The Lib Dems if they can find a Macron, otherwise Reform.
Depends on tactical voting, 30% for Reform is certainly not enough to win a majority if LD, Green and Labour voters tactically vote against Farage
Tactical voting on the centre left won't work if Labour remain as popular as they are now.
Your bunch need to get out there and blame Farage for assisting your lot to break everything. And to call out his links to Trump and his gushing appraisal of Putin.
I do wonder if the best case for Farage is largest party, but not close to a majority. Then you'd have a National Government of everyone else. Which would be fighting like ferrets in a sack. While Farage throws brickbats from the opposition benches.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
Our 1920s semi has original hardwood panelled doors, but several of them have little filled holes around the edge where a sheet of hardboard was attached at some point to hide the - old fashioned, I guess? - panelling.
It's striking how different in tone the posts are on Linkedin about the flag/data collection incident compared to Facebook.
"This is disgusting behaviour, I hope that the operative is ok. Hopefully the Police will investigate fully. The only thing I can suggest would be that operatives work in pairs, though not sure that would have stopped this incident." vs "Well done that man..typical council, the flag wasn't hurting anybody, they put their staff at risk 😂"
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I'm sure there are lots of people who are still interested in Wedgwood products.
Because we were passing we went to the Wedgwood museum last year - given the lack of visitors and the excitement amongst the staff of us turning up and being interested - I do wonder if the V&A regret taking it over
There is a very good in Our Time episode about how Wedgewood started and vase mania. It partly arose from the discovery of Pompei and Herculaneum, the Grand Tour and Wedgewood wanting to create a brand. It was Sir William Hamilton who did much to bring the discoveries from Pompei to England. And then, of course, the idea of having decorative objects in our house was one of the signs of an emerging and increasingly richer aspirational middle class.
There is so much of interest to learn about this and not just interest but relevance. Interest in other cultures, travel, rediscovering history, creating a market, developing skills and crafts. Any halfway competent museum or history teacher ought to be able to make something fascinating about this. Why are we so unambitious?
There is even a wonderful novel about it - The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag. Well worth reading.
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Our problem in the West isn't that the established car makers didn't innovate, but that - Tesla aside - all the new EV car makers are Chinese. What's wrong with Western economies that we don't have startup EV car companies, or that they failed to scale, failed to attract investment, or didn't create cars people wanted to buy?
It is fine for established companies to fail, as long as you have a healthy turnover of new companies to replace them.
Two related problems, one was the Chinese massively subsidising electric vehicle production, and the other was Western governments pushing the technology before it was ready and with poorly-targeted subsidies. Difficult to know which was the chicken and which was the egg.
Video of automotive journalist Harry Metcalfe talking about recent discussions on the European car market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCrrA9ju0g The European manufacturers are already announcing redundancies, and think it’s potentially existential for the European car industry. People are not buying new cars, they’re keeping what they have already.
Two more related problems are that used cars last longer so there is less replacement pressure, and the prestige of established brands now attaches to EV-ness itself.
A new consequence, incidentally, is that da yoof are happy to learn on automatics, as reported last week:-
Possibly the most relevant thing to come from that video, is that the Chinese are including plug-in hybrids and range extenders in their sales mix targets for the 2030s, and these cars are a much easier sell to people for whom the charging network is the problem.
The other problem is that cars have really been good enough and reliable enough for about two decades now, and legislation has made the new ones a lot more expensive than only a few years ago.
It's striking how different in tone the posts are on Linkedin about the flag incident compared to Facebook.
"This is disgusting behaviour, I hope that the operative is ok. Hopefully the Police will investigate fully. The only thing I can suggest would be that operatives work in pairs, though not sure that would have stopped this incident." vs "Well done that man..typical council, the flag wasn't hurting anybody, they put their staff at risk 😂"
LinkedIn is social media when the boss is watching.
A small local matter: there are proposals to build more houses (cunningly, this will be on a farmer's field prone to flooding). Access will be difficult. The 'plan', if approved, is apparently to use a certain lane for access. Said lane is deemed too small by the council for a bin lorry to go up, so the residents have to wheel their bins down to the bottom of the lane. Furthermore, reaching the field would require hacking down an ancient hedge brimming with wildlife.
Schrodinger's Lane: too narrow for a bin lorry, easily wide enough for construction vehicles and building materials.
[This is especially stupid as there's an existing road that leads directly to the farmer's field. Access would, however, require opening the gate.]
There are lots of ways to skin that cat, some which can be circumvented by the developer providing a viable alternative.
Were I wanting to force an improvement and the lane (or the alternative), I'd be running a slide rule over the proposed access (and turnaround space) for fire engines (which are a bit more compulsory than bin lorries), and the impact on amenity (eg wheelchair users on the footpaths) at the place where the bins will be every week. And possibly objecting on that basis.
Fire engines have rules about how far the furthest part of any house can be from where the fire engine can reach, and they are about the same width as a bin lorry.
Whilst of course drawing attention to the hedge and the alternative access. There will be policy aroud preserving hedges - it features in the "15. Conserving and enhancing the natural environment" section of the NPPF.
And of course if there are flood risks, removing a hedge will reduce the take-up capacity of the land.
My local estate was built preserving all the hedges and footpaths as rural rides, and it is beautiful.
In agreement with most of PB, I don't see Starmer getting rid of Reeves. My feeling is that he would like to - his ungallant failure to back her at PMQs despite her obvious distress (even before she started crying) made that fairly plain. But he can't now. Her replacement could only really be someone from the left, the PLP wouldn't tolerate anybody to the right. And that would probably lead to market instability. So it's 'stuck in the middle with you'.
I would like to think that Reeves could pull a brilliant budget out of her hat - contrary to what most here probably think, as a patriot I do not want the Government to fail. She could at least make some moves toward fiscal rectitude, even if woefully short of what's needed. A total recruitment freeze in the civil service would be one good idea. Civil servants actually tend to like recruitment freezes as it means they get more promotions, so there should be little internal resistance. A meaningul ditching of quangos with a proper timetable, and figures for how much would be saved would be another good avenue. Labour already has (some) track record in this with its NHS England ditching - though has that actually happened? It's a victimless crime, because everybody dislikes quangos, including Labour MPs. A few such things would (I think) calm jitters, despite not going far enough.
A small local matter: there are proposals to build more houses (cunningly, this will be on a farmer's field prone to flooding). Access will be difficult. The 'plan', if approved, is apparently to use a certain lane for access. Said lane is deemed too small by the council for a bin lorry to go up, so the residents have to wheel their bins down to the bottom of the lane. Furthermore, reaching the field would require hacking down an ancient hedge brimming with wildlife.
Schrodinger's Lane: too narrow for a bin lorry, easily wide enough for construction vehicles and building materials.
[This is especially stupid as there's an existing road that leads directly to the farmer's field. Access would, however, require opening the gate.]
There are lots of ways to skin that cat, some which can be circumvented by the developer providing a viable alternative.
Were I wanting to force an improvement and the lane (or the alternative), I'd be running a slide rule over the proposed access (and turnaround space) for fire engines (which are a bit more compulsory than bin lorries), and the impact on amenity (eg wheelchair users on the footpaths) at the place where the bins will be every week. And possibly objecting on that basis.
Fire engines have rules about how far the furthest part of any house can be from where the fire engine can reach, and they are about the same width as a bin lorry.
Anecdotally, a part of Cambourne west (the new development around me) was built despite the council objecting about bin lorry access...
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally. The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
I wonder what would happen if you replied to this email:
Porsche's stock tumbled by more than 7% on Monday after warning last week that delays in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout will dent the carmaker's 2025 earnings.
Caught between electrification and its iconic petrol-powered sports cars, the German firm said it will slow its push for EVs as demand weakens. Shares of its parent Volkswagen also fell by more than 7% on the same day after saying it will spend billions to overhaul Porsche's line-up of vehicles.
This is classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. The incumbents have great engineers, they know the new thing is coming, and they know how to make the new thing. But all the short-term incentives of their management are to sell better versions of the old thing to their best customers at higher margins. 10 or 15 years down the road they'll give up making cars and sell the brand to a company that wasn't cursed with the ability to make awesome petrol cars.
The point about "Innovator's Dilemma" (and it was written over a quarter of a century back) was that it isn't really a dilemma. You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Suburban Science Master and all that... but isn't it about timeframes? If you are trying to optimise profits for the next few years, you should milk your cash cows as much as you dare, and... that's about it. The company will fall off a cliff as a result, but that will be in a decade or more, and therefore it will be somebody else's problem.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Our problem in the West isn't that the established car makers didn't innovate, but that - Tesla aside - all the new EV car makers are Chinese. What's wrong with Western economies that we don't have startup EV car companies, or that they failed to scale, failed to attract investment, or didn't create cars people wanted to buy?
It is fine for established companies to fail, as long as you have a healthy turnover of new companies to replace them.
Two related problems, one was the Chinese massively subsidising electric vehicle production, and the other was Western governments pushing the technology before it was ready and with poorly-targeted subsidies. Difficult to know which was the chicken and which was the egg.
Video of automotive journalist Harry Metcalfe talking about recent discussions on the European car market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCrrA9ju0g The European manufacturers are already announcing redundancies, and think it’s potentially existential for the European car industry. People are not buying new cars, they’re keeping what they have already.
Two more related problems are that used cars last longer so there is less replacement pressure, and the prestige of established brands now attaches to EV-ness itself.
A new consequence, incidentally, is that da yoof are happy to learn on automatics, as reported last week:-
Possibly the most relevant thing to come from that video, is that the Chinese are including plug-in hybrids and range extenders in their sales mix targets for the 2030s, and these cars are a much easier sell to people for whom the charging network is the problem.
Having had both a full EV and a PHEV, and limited home charging options, I’ve concluded the problem isn’t the charging network it’s the price of the charging network.
Do any car leasing companies offer deals inclusive of unlimited charging on a particular network? Because if not they should. Leases are already limited by annual mileage. Say you have 10k miles per year: that’s what, conservatively about 3,000kwh? At 50p per kWh you’d be adding just over £100 to the monthly lease assuming there’s no home charging at all. But given the bulk purchase you could probably charge closer to 30p. And lots of drivers will undershoot their mileage allowance. Do it could be cheaper still. More palatable than charging at unpredictable spot prices, and more guaranteed income for the suppliers.
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Crushing defeat to whom?
The Lib Dems if they can find a Macron, otherwise Reform.
Depends on tactical voting, 30% for Reform is certainly not enough to win a majority if LD, Green and Labour voters tactically vote against Farage
Tactical voting on the centre left won't work if Labour remain as popular as they are now.
Your bunch need to get out there and blame Farage for assisting your lot to break everything. And to call out his links to Trump and his gushing appraisal of Putin.
Proud husband: On yesterday's flight to Portugal there was obviously something serious going on and then an announcement was made for any Doctor on the flight. My wife stepped up. Interestingly she said they had an impressive amount of gear if she had needed it. Getting a bit concerning when the defibrillator came out, but wasn't needed and all ended well after about an hour.
We were offered anything free from the trolley, but having got up at 2 am for a 6 am flight a cup of coffee was all we could face.
Just had letter asking for repayment of £400 approx to DWP which relates to dad's state pension which they were slow to stop after his death. He died in February - 7 months ago! Probate was granted May and cash in estate already distributed!
I am surprised now our resident autism expert is up that we have had no commentary on Donald Trump having announced he has discovered the cause of autism. Paracetamol and Tylenol consumption apparently. I wonder if intravenous bleach delivery is the cure like it was for COVID according to Dr Trump.
Can we have an official list of all PBers who are predicting their will be no mid-term elections in the USA next year.
I'm sure those PBers will be happy to have their foresight available for all to see.
Can we also get a list of those who predict seriously that Donald Trump will run in 2028.
There are a few ifs and buts, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Firstly Trump Snr. has to survive myriad health issues. Should he do so law change is required, and that is not insurmountable, particularly with compliant legislative and judicial branches of government. Also, you didn't specify Donald Trump Snr. or Jnr. And then there is always Eric, but according to Mary Trump he is the least capable of the lot.
He needs Congress and two thirds of state legislatures to back changing the Constitution. Near impossible and if they did he would likely face Obama who would also run for a third term
Obama can't win Calvinball against the Supreme Court. I think it's unlikely to happen but if it does it could look something like this:
- Republicans push some spurious legal theory about the term limits not being real. After they've all been saying it for a while it becomes a disputed fact and the media start to report it as "Democrats say presidents are limited to two terms, Republicans say they aren't". - Trump runs in the GOP primary and wins. Some Dem states try to keep him off the ballot, Republicans write him in and award him their delegates - When a Dem state tries to keep him off the national ballot, it goes to SCOTUS and SCOTUS rule that it's not up to the states to decide who is and isn't eligible. They already decided this way over insurrection. - If he wins the election, they rule that he's eligible.
Obama doesn't get to run if this happens, because the Dems don't think he's eligible, and in any case if he won, SCOTUS would rule that he wasn't eligible.
The 22nd Amendment makes clear there is a 2 term limit for President. SCOTUS can't directly contradict what is written in black and white in the constitution however much they may try and spin it.
In the very unlikely event Congress and 2/3 of state legislatures repealed the 22nd Amendment then Obama and Trump would both run. The Democrats assuming they had control of most state legislatures and governors would put Obama on the ballot in all those states and if Obama won would inaugrate him as POTUS whatever the SC said.
It would then come down to who most of the army backed, Trump or Obama, by then the US would be near a second civil war anyway with some deep blue or deep red states starting to secede whichever of Trump or Obama ended up inaugrated
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
It's variation of why people nailed hardboard across Edwardian fireplaces in the 60s and 70s. Not fashionable.
No, I think the demise of Wedgwood crockery is more like brown furniture. It is not about fashion so much as practicality. Homes are smaller, people no longer have the space, and this is aggravated by the march of technology in just the last ten or 20 years, so plates need to be dishwasher-safe and furniture needs space for screens and holes for cables.
LG had a rollable TV that could auto-hide itself. Ludicrously expensive - but if someone ever gets that kind of thing down into the low four digit bracket it'll do wonders for home decor.
Most Grand Designs houses, if they have a TV at all, have ones that pop up and down out of a piece of furniture. More seriously as screens can show anything, is there a market for a wall hung TV that shows family photos, great art etc when not in use as a TV? Or even just chameleon's into the wall?
I often use ours to display the scene from one of the webcams on either the Keighley & Worth Valley or East Lancs railways.
Watching the comings and goings across the Ramsbottom level crossing can be therapeutic.
I have a lot of antique furniture in my modern house because (a) it is really good value; (b) very well made; and (c) is beautiful.
Also mixing old and new objects can work very well, if well chosen. They can enhance each other and make you look at objects afresh.
We should teach our children how to look at objects and the natural world properly and with care. Good design enhances life. And by "good design" I don't mean overpriced tat by designers who think beige is a colour but objects that work well for their intended use and have some sense of harmony in their design.
I bought a mahogany William IV writing table as an all purpose table. Dining, drinking, everything. It’s delicate and slim and it dates from exactly the age of my home. Which is great
It looks glorious and when I show people photos they say “ooh wow, how much? £500? £1000?” and when I tell them the truth - £120 - they are GOB-SMACKED
Also I LIKE the drawers. I put little cast iron Japanese pots in each, and quarter fill each with raw Omani frankincense tears soaked in citrusy reed diffuser oil, so the scent lasts for ages
The perfume they give off is glorious. Every time I open a drawer it’s like walking into an opulent Roman church crossed with a 5 star spa
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally. The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
I wonder what would happen if you replied to this email:
Is this a joke?
I can see the difficulties bisexuals may face choosing who to sleep with this evening, unless they are one of the rare open bisexuals in a long term relationship or marriage
Just had letter asking for repayment of £400 approx to DWP which relates to dad's state pension which they were slow to stop after his death. He died in February - 7 months ago! Probate was granted May and cash in estate already distributed!
To be slower than probate solicitors on this takes some doing. I assume it's timed out or some such.
I am surprised now our resident autism expert is up that we have had no commentary on Donald Trump having announced he has discovered the cause of autism. Paracetamol and Tylenol consumption apparently. I wonder if intravenous bleach delivery is the cure like it was for COVID according to Dr Trump.
Isn't this a classic correlation-not-causation thing?
I am surprised now our resident autism expert is up that we have had no commentary on Donald Trump having announced he has discovered the cause of autism. Paracetamol and Tylenol consumption apparently. I wonder if intravenous bleach delivery is the cure like it was for COVID according to Dr Trump.
I've not looked at any of the research on leucovorin or paracetamol. I'd simply note that it's laughably easy to make a systematic review say what you want it to say if you're so inclined. Reputable ones, Cochrane etc, will likely be well done, but for random ones a little tweaking of inclusion criteria or taking advantage of subjective quality assessment tools would enable you to conclude almost anything. A case in point is the various reviews around transgender interventions for children. You can get whatever answer you like by picking your studies.
Just had letter asking for repayment of £400 approx to DWP which relates to dad's state pension which they were slow to stop after his death. He died in February - 7 months ago! Probate was granted May and cash in estate already distributed!
Must include in my 'What if I die" notes something about stopping OAP (etc) PDQ.
Just had letter asking for repayment of £400 approx to DWP which relates to dad's state pension which they were slow to stop after his death. He died in February - 7 months ago! Probate was granted May and cash in estate already distributed!
I was told by my solicitor that DWP don't chase modest payment from deceased estates. They are simply hoping you will pay voluntarily. My dad owed for a two day over payment, and the solicitor ignored it.
Caveat emptor: I am not a lawyer and it was back in the day when we had a "friendly" government when it came down to inherited wealth.
I am surprised now our resident autism expert is up that we have had no commentary on Donald Trump having announced he has discovered the cause of autism. Paracetamol and Tylenol consumption apparently. I wonder if intravenous bleach delivery is the cure like it was for COVID according to Dr Trump.
Isn't this a classic correlation-not-causation thing?
(I haven't looked at the research but) yes you can well imagine confounders such as maternal health conditions or stress that could potentially correlate with both autism and paracetamol use. Don't control for the confounder and you get a spurious correlation between autism and paracetamol.
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I’m writing a piece on this theme. THE ASTONISHING CHEAPNESS OF LOVELY OLD THINGS
Wedgwood was a British status symbol but now you can’t even give it away
“No ta, love. I won’t be able to shift that,” said the bloke behind the counter at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre when I asked if he’d buy my late aunt’s 1970s Wedgwood “Clementine” dinner service. I got the same answer from all five of my local charity shops when I tried to give it away. “Those sets take up too much shelf space and they don’t sell,” shrugged the kindly woman in Barnardo’s. “Hardly anybody uses that stuff any more. It won’t go in the microwave or dishwasher will it? You could try eBay, though?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/wedgwood-from-status-symbol-to-cant-give-it-away/ (£££)
Another one for pb's interior design correspondent, aka Leon.
I’m writing a piece on this theme. THE ASTONISHING CHEAPNESS OF LOVELY OLD THINGS
Are we going to have to wait until October or November every year of this parliament wondering how she's going to make our shit sandwich even bigger?
The uncertainty it drives into the economy and investment for months on end is criminal. And hurts UK Plc.
This is a key point - investment has dried up. To be fair to Reeves it isn't just her, it dried up before Labour took over. And its in every industry. It's been fascinating watching north sea industry leaders aghast at "drill baby drill" - that is the opposite of what they want. Planned, deliverable, profitable investment over a long period of time, with stable politics giving a platform they trust putting money into.
This is crazy. The UK economy has stalled completely, and the never ending shit show cycle makes it worse.
You're an investor. The UK has had 6 Prime Ministers and 8 Chancellors in 10 years. With wild policy swings in that time. Sometimes week to week. Why would you invest here? We need stability. Leaving Reeves in place brings stability to the ver changing cycle but in this case it is stability as the ship sinks. She needs to go.
£150bn of US AI investment announced last week and £2bn for the new Gatwick runway yesterday. Not sure its true to say that investment has dried up. The lack of new build housing is seriously disappointing though.
AI has major energy requirements to the extent I can see the US being happy to dump those on us.
So where is the energy capacity coming from to supply that £150bn of power hungry GPUs
Add high electricity costs to the list of reasons to explain Labour's crushing defeat at GE2029.
Crushing defeat to whom?
The Lib Dems if they can find a Macron, otherwise Reform.
Depends on tactical voting, 30% for Reform is certainly not enough to win a majority if LD, Green and Labour voters tactically vote against Farage
Theoretically tactical voting could stop Farage, but I have my doubts.
Firstly the extent to which Labour are underwater would reduce the number of people prepared to vote Labour tactically. Secondly, we've seen at previous elections that it's not always obvious which way a tactical voter should vote, with conflicting advice given by different websites, depending on whether you focus on the previous election result or on different projections of the vote at the next election before tactical voting, and other factors.
Comments
An unfortunate event occurred last Friday in Salford involving one of our site engineers. While undertaking routine work to install temporary data collection equipment, a member of the public forcibly detached the safety ladder straps and pulled him from his ladder. An incident that has since been widely circulated online across various social media platforms.
We want to take this opportunity to provide clarification. Citisense is a transport consultancy, technology and data collection company. Our teams operate nationally, installing and removing our data collection equipment, including temporary cameras to support Highway and Transport projects for our clients. We have no involvement in, nor have we ever been instructed by any authority, to remove flags of any kind.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/citisenseltd_citisense-statement-ugcPost-7375869378057256960-S0fY
You either change or you die.
It was pretty damn obvious more than a decade back which way it would go with EVs, and western car manufacturers (Tesla excepted) thought they'd be fine just taking their time.
They weren't.
Fireplaces are effectively obsolete antiques.
As is non-dishwasher/microwave tableware.
Western companies used to do this. See Boeing - which used to bet the company on the next thing. The last time they did that was probably the 747.
Yes, the firm will die, but you can have a bloody good party in the meantime.
Now we have much better home insulation and draft reduction. The log burner is a fashion statement.
Epstein was able to go and work at his office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein#:~:text=He was convicted of only,but with extensive work release.
Autohiding TVs that drop into the floor or slide down in the foot of a bed are a thing, if you want one.
The flexible screens at TV size are about 5 years off, IIRC.
I think a few prosecutions would be helpful to nip it in the bud, just as a few rapid prosecutions choked the far right riots in 2024.
In my area flags are just being left alone, but I don't think we have too many of the violent hardcore on day release from a zoo - if we did Lee Anderson's demo would have been more out of hand. If one went up on the telegraph pole outside my house, it would be coming down pronto.
There are more threatening videos around, but also I think some of them are in the same fake bracket as eg fake car clamping videos, which is SM types wanting clicks.
It's called the march of time!
"Hi Everyone, Today is Bi is a day to recognise the bisexual community and celebrate bisexual people globally.
The bisexual community is frequently referred to as the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community and they face a number of negative stereotypes and expectations. Bisexual Visibility Day is an opportunity to celebrate bisexuals and discover the difficulties that many members of the bisexual community face."
Not quite sure of the difficulties, but then I'm not bi. Also not sure what celebration I'm supposed to be doing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEOXrmsa7Y0
*and thus often S.O. unfriendly.
And bedroom TVs just feel like you've given up on something.
It is fine for established companies to fail, as long as you have a healthy turnover of new companies to replace them.
https://novaramedia.com/2025/09/17/meet-the-far-right-influencers-at-tommy-robinsons-rally/
Here, the council are trying to ignore the flags as well- which will be fine until they start to look tatty. That's not enough for the latest Rosindellgram, which has "we're livid at other councils taking flags down" as its top story.
A while back I dislocated my shoulder - and, it turns out, my elbow (*). Physio exercises are part of the recovery, for which I need a plain section of wall to stand against.
It's just that, in our four bedroom house, there are only two short sections of wall that are not covered by windows, radiators, doors, furniture, pictures, etc, etc. And one of them is not suitable because of lack of legroom.
I don't think we're particularly cluttered; I think it may just be the fact we're in a relatively small new build.
(*) A hint for other posters: don't do a couple of triathlons days after dislocating your shoulder. Not the wisest decision I have ever made...
For example, Firepoint, the Ukrainian manufacturer of the new flamingo cruise missile was a company founded in 2022 in response to the renewed Russian invasion.
https://www.samsung.com/uk/lifestyle-tvs/the-frame/
We have one because we got a ridiculously good clearance deal on an older model. The art display looks very impressive but I don't actually use it that much as I don't see the point of having the TV on when I'm not watching it
Video of automotive journalist Harry Metcalfe talking about recent discussions on the European car market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCrrA9ju0g
The European manufacturers are already announcing redundancies, and think it’s potentially existential for the European car industry. People are not buying new cars, they’re keeping what they have already.
Also mixing old and new objects can work very well, if well chosen. They can enhance each other and make you look at objects afresh.
We should teach our children how to look at objects and the natural world properly and with care. Good design enhances life. And by "good design" I don't mean overpriced tat by designers who think beige is a colour but objects that work well for their intended use and have some sense of harmony in their design.
I actually dislocated my shoulder (*) changing the bedding! I've always known I've got double-jointed (hypermobile) elbows; I've only just found out that my shoulders are also slightly hypermobile. All the years of hiking with big packs on, and I only find out when I'm in my fifties...
(*) Actually a subluxation, as it went straight back in.
We celebrate celebration on here. Flags of St George for example. We just let those celebrating to get on with it, so I don't suppose you or I have to do anything other than nod approvingly.
I think the faff quotient is an advantage. The slight barrier to watching something reduces the likelihood of watching rubbish just because it is there.
A new consequence, incidentally, is that da yoof are happy to learn on automatics, as reported last week:-
End of the road for manual drivers? More learners opt for automatics in tests
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80gk97xe85o
I believe you are still operating to pre-2016 norms.
Though such states are likely to not vote to change the constitution to allow a Trump third term run in any case and he needs both Congress and 2/3 of states to vote to change the constitution to enable him to run for a third term
Your bunch need to get out there and blame Farage for assisting your lot to break everything. And to call out his links to Trump and his gushing appraisal of Putin.
- Republicans push some spurious legal theory about the term limits not being real. After they've all been saying it for a while it becomes a disputed fact and the media start to report it as "Democrats say presidents are limited to two terms, Republicans say they aren't".
- Trump runs in the GOP primary and wins. Some Dem states try to keep him off the ballot, Republicans write him in and award him their delegates
- When a Dem state tries to keep him off the national ballot, it goes to SCOTUS and SCOTUS rule that it's not up to the states to decide who is and isn't eligible. They already decided this way over insurrection.
- If he wins the election, they rule that he's eligible.
Obama doesn't get to run if this happens, because the Dems don't think he's eligible, and in any case if he won, SCOTUS would rule that he wasn't eligible.
Someone had branded it Council worker, and I did not check.
The latest projectors are very quiet - and have WiFi/Airplay/other standards built in.
"This is disgusting behaviour, I hope that the operative is ok. Hopefully the Police will investigate fully. The only thing I can suggest would be that operatives work in pairs, though not sure that would have stopped this incident."
vs
"Well done that man..typical council, the flag wasn't hurting anybody, they put their staff at risk 😂"
There is so much of interest to learn about this and not just interest but relevance. Interest in other cultures, travel, rediscovering history, creating a market, developing skills and crafts. Any halfway competent museum or history teacher ought to be able to make something fascinating about this. Why are we so unambitious?
There is even a wonderful novel about it - The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag. Well worth reading.
The other problem is that cars have really been good enough and reliable enough for about two decades now, and legislation has made the new ones a lot more expensive than only a few years ago.
Were I wanting to force an improvement and the lane (or the alternative), I'd be running a slide rule over the proposed access (and turnaround space) for fire engines (which are a bit more compulsory than bin lorries), and the impact on amenity (eg wheelchair users on the footpaths) at the place where the bins will be every week. And possibly objecting on that basis.
Fire engines have rules about how far the furthest part of any house can be from where the fire engine can reach, and they are about the same width as a bin lorry.
Whilst of course drawing attention to the hedge and the alternative access. There will be policy aroud preserving hedges - it features in the "15. Conserving and enhancing the natural environment" section of the NPPF.
And of course if there are flood risks, removing a hedge will reduce the take-up capacity of the land.
My local estate was built preserving all the hedges and footpaths as rural rides, and it is beautiful.
I would like to think that Reeves could pull a brilliant budget out of her hat - contrary to what most here probably think, as a patriot I do not want the Government to fail. She could at least make some moves toward fiscal rectitude, even if woefully short of what's needed. A total recruitment freeze in the civil service would be one good idea. Civil servants actually tend to like recruitment freezes as it means they get more promotions, so there should be little internal resistance. A meaningul ditching of quangos with a proper timetable, and figures for how much would be saved would be another good avenue. Labour already has (some) track record in this with its NHS England ditching - though has that actually happened? It's a victimless crime, because everybody dislikes quangos, including Labour MPs. A few such things would (I think) calm jitters, despite not going far enough.
https://x.com/jayinkyiv/status/1970393105489895847
(Also reports of some russian drones flying around Northern European airspace as well).
Is this a joke?
Do any car leasing companies offer deals inclusive of unlimited charging on a particular network? Because if not they should. Leases are already limited by annual mileage. Say you have 10k miles per year: that’s what, conservatively about 3,000kwh? At 50p per kWh you’d be adding just over £100 to the monthly lease assuming there’s no home charging at all. But given the bulk purchase you could probably charge closer to 30p. And lots of drivers will undershoot their mileage allowance. Do it could be cheaper still. More palatable than charging at unpredictable spot prices, and more guaranteed income for the suppliers.
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/51713-is-tactical-voting-more-of-a-threat-or-opportunity-for-reform-uk
We were offered anything free from the trolley, but having got up at 2 am for a 6 am flight a cup of coffee was all we could face.
Very proud
In the very unlikely event Congress and 2/3 of state legislatures repealed the 22nd Amendment then Obama and Trump would both run. The Democrats assuming they had control of most state legislatures and governors would put Obama on the ballot in all those states and if Obama won would inaugrate him as POTUS whatever the SC said.
It would then come down to who most of the army backed, Trump or Obama, by then the US would be near a second civil war anyway with some deep blue or deep red states starting to secede whichever of Trump or Obama ended up inaugrated
Watching the comings and goings across the Ramsbottom level crossing can be therapeutic.
It looks glorious and when I show people photos they say “ooh wow, how much? £500? £1000?” and when I tell them the truth - £120 - they are GOB-SMACKED
Also I LIKE the drawers. I put little cast iron Japanese pots in each, and quarter fill each with raw Omani frankincense tears soaked in citrusy reed diffuser oil, so the scent lasts for ages
The perfume they give off is glorious. Every time I open a drawer it’s like walking into an opulent Roman church crossed with a 5 star spa
I've not looked at any of the research on leucovorin or paracetamol. I'd simply note that it's laughably easy to make a systematic review say what you want it to say if you're so inclined. Reputable ones, Cochrane etc, will likely be well done, but for random ones a little tweaking of inclusion criteria or taking advantage of subjective quality assessment tools would enable you to conclude almost anything. A case in point is the various reviews around transgender interventions for children. You can get whatever answer you like by picking your studies.
Caveat emptor: I am not a lawyer and it was back in the day when we had a "friendly" government when it came down to inherited wealth.
Firstly the extent to which Labour are underwater would reduce the number of people prepared to vote Labour tactically. Secondly, we've seen at previous elections that it's not always obvious which way a tactical voter should vote, with conflicting advice given by different websites, depending on whether you focus on the previous election result or on different projections of the vote at the next election before tactical voting, and other factors.