Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
I now own approximately 3/4 of a percent of a start-up based in Oakland, so, yes, I did visit Oakland. It seemed nice and I felt in no danger.
I got the BART from Berkeley through Oakland. A man got on and immediately set fire to his own shirt before running up and down the carriage threatening people with a knife. Very exciting, especially for our 4 children.
Yeap that's been my experience (and the stats back it up), its sketchy as f##k. Obviously you have UC Berkeley campus which is lovely north of Oakland, but you don't have to go far away from that to get into iffy places.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
What have they done?
It's one of these posts where I wish someone would link to what has happened, rather than just give their reaction. That's sadly getting all too common in the media nowadays...
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
The Flemming novels exit copyright in the UK in 2034. Amazon/MGMs power will wain.
That sounds like a good call by the family Broccoli.
I've actually stayed in Oakland - only place I could afford when I was travelling through the states (spent most of it camping). Two people got shot overnight in the next street and we had to pass through a police cordon on the way to breakfast.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
What have they done?
It's one of these posts where I wish someone would link to what has happened, rather than just give their reaction. That's sadly getting all too common in the media nowadays...
I've actually stayed in Oakland - only place I could afford when I was travelling through the states (spent most of it camping). Two people got shot overnight in the next street and we had to pass through a police cordon on the way to breakfast.
First visit ever to the US, went to Seattle, at the time poor student, couldn't afford anything flash, so stayed in a motel not that far from Boeing, shoot out in the parking lot. Police everywhere. I am talking to the night porter, and he is casually like, yeap its another one.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
The Flemming novels exit copyright in the UK in 2034. Amazon/MGMs power will wain.
That sounds like a good call by the family Broccoli.
Selling was a good call. The copyright expires because Fleming pegged it in 1964.
When I was at uni 30 years ago, the uni were exceptionally helpful wrt my health problems at the time. And when a friend had a collapsed lung during an exam (*) they were also excellent in fairly dealing with the repercussions of his ill-health.
(*) The show-off!
I was at uni around 25 years ago and I remember being told by one lecturer, during a particularly awful and embarrassing tutorial, that I should contact the university counselling service. I didn't, because I felt so ashamed. And there was no follow-up from the lecturer.
It's difficult, because a lot of people when they are depressed push other people away, and resist offers of help, but it's why an effort has to be made by those around them to get them help.
Perhaps that's an important point; both my health issue, and my friends, were physical. The problem could be seen and diagnosed. (Me: intense pain; him coughing up loads of blood). Whereas mental health is much harder to diagnose, and especially wrt the severity of it. How much of what this kid (and some students are still essentially kids...) is genuine depression, and how much just the angst we all feel from time to time, especially when growing up? And does that distinction even matter?
As an aside, I've had a couple of hard times in my life, and on a few occasions when younger I felt very low. I would say things like: "God, I'm so depressed!". But having seen people who the black dog has stalked, I now realise that I was not depressed, just feeling a little low. I was never that low. And when I was/am low, I have developed coping strategies. Which mostly consist of "Going for a long walk". Which should surprise no-one on here...
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
What have they done?
It's one of these posts where I wish someone would link to what has happened, rather than just give their reaction. That's sadly getting all too common in the media nowadays...
When I was at uni 30 years ago, the uni were exceptionally helpful wrt my health problems at the time. And when a friend had a collapsed lung during an exam (*) they were also excellent in fairly dealing with the repercussions of his ill-health.
(*) The show-off!
I was at uni around 25 years ago and I remember being told by one lecturer, during a particularly awful and embarrassing tutorial, that I should contact the university counselling service. I didn't, because I felt so ashamed. And there was no follow-up from the lecturer.
It's difficult, because a lot of people when they are depressed push other people away, and resist offers of help, but it's why an effort has to be made by those around them to get them help.
Perhaps that's an important point; both my health issue, and my friends, were physical. The problem could be seen and diagnosed. (Me: intense pain; him coughing up loads of blood). Whereas mental health is much harder to diagnose, and especially wrt the severity of it. How much of what this kid (and some students are still essentially kids...) is genuine depression, and how much just the angst we all feel from time to time, especially when growing up? And does that distinction even matter?
As an aside, I've had a couple of hard times in my life, and on a few occasions when younger I felt very low. I would say things like: "God, I'm so depressed!". But having seen people who the black dog has stalked, I now realise that I was not depressed, just feeling a little low. I was never that low. And when I was/am low, I have developed coping strategies. Which mostly consist of "Going for a long walk". Which should surprise no-one on here...
Going for a walk helps me too. But when you are feeling so bad that you won't get out of bed to get a drink of water...
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
I now own approximately 3/4 of a percent of a start-up based in Oakland, so, yes, I did visit Oakland. It seemed nice and I felt in no danger.
I tried the link but it seems we in blighty are blocked
I am back home and the link worked fine for me. In summary, it says Oakland has a high rate of crime.
Where's home for you?
North London, the best place in the whole world.
It's fine to think that where you live is the best place in the world. I'd only consider someone parochial if they were unduly negative about other places.
Maybe quite a lot, I don't believe there is a maximum salary for social housing. Once you have the house you get to stay there.
I'm not sure we know why they came to the country - if it was as refugees it might explain the council house.
I can’t help but feel that there should be a maximum salary. Why should public resources be used to subsidise the housing costs for those that can afford?
Why should someone be forced to move from their home because they’ve become successful?
Because it’s social housing owned by all of us. Not the person. It is meant to help poor people - that’s why we all own it and pay for it with our taxes
If you become successful yes of course you should be forced out. You can afford it
If the tenants of social housing are supposed to be poor, how come so many managed to exercise their right-to-buy?
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
What have they done?
I’m guessing it’s the new gun less posters on Amazon prime ?
That's an incredibly weird thing to do. Who would possibly be offended by the gun in that context, or what marketing benefit could there possibly be to making them gun-less?
I agree with TSE if as is likely the May local elections are bad for the Conservatives that is when Jenrick's supporters would make a move and initiate a VONC but not before. However as Michael Heseltine discovered the assassin rarely wears the Crown in Tory leadership contests.
If Jenrick supporters therefore forced a VONC which Kemi lost, I would then expect Kemi loyalist MPs to back Cleverly to succeed her. As last year the combined Kemi and Cleverly backing Tory MPs were 2/3 of the Conservatives parliamentary party that would then make Cleverly leader by coronation
Three BAME leaders one after enough. And three women PMs. How’s Labour doing?
and the Tories are sitting where in the polls exactly?
Interesting. You are implicitly saying that white male leaders are intrinsically better than BAME or female leaders
No, I am simply making the observation that having 3 BAME leaders in a row might not be entirely unconnected with the fact that half the Tories voters appear to have switched to Reform.
So why is Labour where it is?
You mean still ahead of the Tories?
Face it. Your attempt at snark revealed an underlying attitude you now want to obfuscate
Rather than making an insinuation please spell out my "underlying attitude" so I can at least defend myself.
That white male leaders are intrinsically more capable than either BAME or women
OMG I can't believe you're still using "BAME" !!!!!!!
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
Not surprised , Tories in general don't believe in human rights anyway.
I'm not about to think we'd instantly become a dystopian hellscape if we were to leave it, but proponents have done a very very bad job of explaining what the benefits would be, or rather what the problems with it are other than admittedly annoying bureaucratic inconveniences in some cases.
Maybe quite a lot, I don't believe there is a maximum salary for social housing. Once you have the house you get to stay there.
I'm not sure we know why they came to the country - if it was as refugees it might explain the council house.
I can’t help but feel that there should be a maximum salary. Why should public resources be used to subsidise the housing costs for those that can afford?
Why should someone be forced to move from their home because they’ve become successful?
Because it’s social housing owned by all of us. Not the person. It is meant to help poor people - that’s why we all own it and pay for it with our taxes
If you become successful yes of course you should be forced out. You can afford it
If the tenants of social housing are supposed to be poor, how come so many managed to exercise their right-to-buy?
(a) mortgages, etc. and a massive discount (sitting tenants, sure, but that wasn't the only element, there was a huge bribe element) (b) a lot of it was shit, therefore cheap - many folk up north got trapped in houses they couldn't sell (c) Mrs T era, so lots of people being made redundant, many used their redundo to help pay - on which see (b) for many
Maybe quite a lot, I don't believe there is a maximum salary for social housing. Once you have the house you get to stay there.
I'm not sure we know why they came to the country - if it was as refugees it might explain the council house.
I can’t help but feel that there should be a maximum salary. Why should public resources be used to subsidise the housing costs for those that can afford?
Why should someone be forced to move from their home because they’ve become successful?
Because it’s social housing owned by all of us. Not the person. It is meant to help poor people - that’s why we all own it and pay for it with our taxes
If you become successful yes of course you should be forced out. You can afford it
If the tenants of social housing are supposed to be poor, how come so many managed to exercise their right-to-buy?
Because of the amount of (fairly) cheap credit, plus hucksters offering it.
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
I'm not sure East Ham High Street is the place for "street" food - indeed, Stratford does a much better line on street food from Gambian to Jamaican cuisine and many points in between.
I mean, there are so many ways to combine two simple ingredients - chicken and rice - it's absurd. Whether it's African or from a Hawker market in Singapore, it's just magical.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
As they are allowed to.
The government really shouldn't be getting involved
Not surprised , Tories in general don't believe in human rights anyway.
I'm not about to think we'd instantly become a dystopian hellscape if we were to leave it, but proponents have done a very very bad job of explaining what the benefits would be, or rather what the problems with it are other than admittedly annoying bureaucratic inconveniences in some cases.
You don't live in NI, presumably. But also there are wider implications for trade, some feel. Just been reading the following.
'Catherine Barnard, professor of European law at the University of Cambridge, warns of the consequences: leaving the convention would end any prospect of better deals for animal and plant trade. The price of food and other goods would rise, she believes, as trade falls. There’s more: she thinks the Good Friday agreement would fall apart overnight; the ECHR runs through it “as in a stick of rock”. And the fallout in retaliation would include losing data exchange on crime, and the ability to extradite criminals.'
Maybe quite a lot, I don't believe there is a maximum salary for social housing. Once you have the house you get to stay there.
I'm not sure we know why they came to the country - if it was as refugees it might explain the council house.
I can’t help but feel that there should be a maximum salary. Why should public resources be used to subsidise the housing costs for those that can afford?
Why should someone be forced to move from their home because they’ve become successful?
Because it’s social housing owned by all of us. Not the person. It is meant to help poor people - that’s why we all own it and pay for it with our taxes
If you become successful yes of course you should be forced out. You can afford it
If the tenants of social housing are supposed to be poor, how come so many managed to exercise their right-to-buy?
Maggie's 33% to 70% discounts under the Right to Buy scheme?
Mounting tensions between government and OBR as first forecasts land in the Treasury - the forecasts that will determine the scale of the tax rises to come
* Ministers are furious with timing of productivity review which will lead to a significant downgrade in forecasts
* They think the OBR is far too gloomy - too quick to downgrade forecasts and reluctant to score growth measures
* Reeves is now publicly lobbying the OBR to include growth measures such as the EU mobility deal and trade deals in its forecasts. Few in government think it will work
* Jeremy Hunt on what it’s like in the Treasury when the forecasts come in: ‘You soon realise there’s only one number that really matters. The second page, bottom right (the headroom figure). When it goes the wrong way you remember Gordon Brown’s famous words to Tony Blair: ‘You’ve stolen my f***ing budget’.’
* Hunt has some sympathy with Reeves but says it ultimately comes down to a lack of headroom. ‘Previous chancellors had much more generous headroom. If you keep the headroom at £10 billion or less then you are taking a big risk because the average swing between fiscal events is £20 billion. It nearly caught me out and it looks like it has caught out Rachel Reeves this time’
I know you won't approve but I love San Diego and more especially the stretch from La Jolla to Del Mar. I imagine you've stayed at some of the really good hotels up on that stretch of the coast.
The seafood is just sublime - when I was trying to impress the future Mrs Stodge two decades ago, I took her to The Marine Room in La Jolla and spent more than I have before (and indeed since) on dinner but it was worth it.
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
I now own approximately 3/4 of a percent of a start-up based in Oakland, so, yes, I did visit Oakland. It seemed nice and I felt in no danger.
I tried the link but it seems we in blighty are blocked
I am back home and the link worked fine for me. In summary, it says Oakland has a high rate of crime.
Where's home for you?
North London, the best place in the whole world.
It's fine to think that where you live is the best place in the world. I'd only consider someone parochial if they were unduly negative about other places.
Not surprised , Tories in general don't believe in human rights anyway.
I'm not about to think we'd instantly become a dystopian hellscape if we were to leave it, but proponents have done a very very bad job of explaining what the benefits would be, or rather what the problems with it are other than admittedly annoying bureaucratic inconveniences in some cases.
You don't live in NI, presumably. But also there are wider implications for trade, some feel. Just been reading the following.
'Catherine Barnard, professor of European law at the University of Cambridge, warns of the consequences: leaving the convention would end any prospect of better deals for animal and plant trade. The price of food and other goods would rise, she believes, as trade falls. There’s more: she thinks the Good Friday agreement would fall apart overnight; the ECHR runs through it “as in a stick of rock”. And the fallout in retaliation would include losing data exchange on crime, and the ability to extradite criminals.'
To be clear (since on reading back I'm not sure it was), I meant proponents on leaving it are not clear on the benefit of doing so, nor on the extent of problems with the ECHR that supposedly necessitate doing so.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
I'm not sure East Ham High Street is the place for "street" food - indeed, Stratford does a much better line on street food from Gambian to Jamaican cuisine and many points in between.
I mean, there are so many ways to combine two simple ingredients - chicken and rice - it's absurd. Whether it's African or from a Hawker market in Singapore, it's just magical.
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
I'm not sure East Ham High Street is the place for "street" food - indeed, Stratford does a much better line on street food from Gambian to Jamaican cuisine and many points in between.
I mean, there are so many ways to combine two simple ingredients - chicken and rice - it's absurd. Whether it's African or from a Hawker market in Singapore, it's just magical.
Isn't "Street Food" merely overpriced junk food?
And which has a higher chance of giving you gut issues?
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
I now own approximately 3/4 of a percent of a start-up based in Oakland, so, yes, I did visit Oakland. It seemed nice and I felt in no danger.
I tried the link but it seems we in blighty are blocked
I am back home and the link worked fine for me. In summary, it says Oakland has a high rate of crime.
Where's home for you?
North London, the best place in the whole world.
It's fine to think that where you live is the best place in the world. I'd only consider someone parochial if they were unduly negative about other places.
Its also very subjective, especially so when an area has extremes.
And north London is a place of extremes.
Owning your own house in Hampstead is a very different life to renting a room in Tottenham.
Maybe quite a lot, I don't believe there is a maximum salary for social housing. Once you have the house you get to stay there.
I'm not sure we know why they came to the country - if it was as refugees it might explain the council house.
I can’t help but feel that there should be a maximum salary. Why should public resources be used to subsidise the housing costs for those that can afford?
Why should someone be forced to move from their home because they’ve become successful?
Because it’s social housing owned by all of us. Not the person. It is meant to help poor people - that’s why we all own it and pay for it with our taxes
If you become successful yes of course you should be forced out. You can afford it
If the tenants of social housing are supposed to be poor, how come so many managed to exercise their right-to-buy?
Maggie's 33% to 70% discounts under the Right to Buy scheme?
And, as I recall, many using tenants as tulchan coos to secretly buy houses at discount [edit] when the tenants themselves didn't have enough money - if Alan B'stard MP had a granny in Sedgefield he'd be buying it "for" her like a shot.
ISTR at least one MP coming very unstuck for that reason. Or was that British Gas privatisation shares? It all runs together in the mind.
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
The strongest and most public division I am seeing on the right is around Free Trade and something more like Victorian (and Edwardian?) Mercantilism. Imaging we were still in 1880 or 1905 is one of the Trumpist shticks. *
Perhaps the Rump Tories need to be on the Free Trade side, as the other is Trumpish - and will cripple the USA economy just as it did in the 1930s.
I'm not sure how they sell it however. If they are going populo-nationalist or being the "slightly different to Farage" party then they will be happy just to deceive in order to make short term gains.
* My off topic speculation - Hegseth may use the beards issue (around folliculitis) to try and re-segregate the US armed forces in some measure; only certain formations will be exempt from shaving requirements, and those will effectively be the black ones, where the issue is prominent.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
What have they done?
I’m guessing it’s the new gun less posters on Amazon prime ?
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
I'm not sure East Ham High Street is the place for "street" food - indeed, Stratford does a much better line on street food from Gambian to Jamaican cuisine and many points in between.
I mean, there are so many ways to combine two simple ingredients - chicken and rice - it's absurd. Whether it's African or from a Hawker market in Singapore, it's just magical.
Street Food: Buy a sausage roll from Greggs and eat it as you leave the shop.
And so the enshittification of James Bond has commenced. The government really needs to think about having restrictions on foreign ownership/control of culturally significant property. Amazon are going to take a great franchise and ruin it and ruin it's legacy.
What have they done?
I’m guessing it’s the new gun less posters on Amazon prime ?
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
If it were that simple, why hasn't it happened before? I suspect it's not as simple as the Conservatives would have us believe - the Good Friday Agreement for example?
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
"Deep fried rice"? FFS don't tell the chip shops up here in Scotland about that. They will deep fry anything.
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
— Security officials are concerned by what they see as the unquantifiable potentially radicalising effect on thousands of people in Britain, especially young people, of watching high-resolution videos of people being killed in Gaza every day. That poses both an immediate threat and the danger of what McCallum has called “slower-burn radicalisation.”
— Anti-terror police have disrupted alleged plots targeting Jewish people since Oct 7. Two men are due to face trial later this month charged with allegedly planning a gun attack on Jews in north-west England. Police are still investigating an alleged plot against the Israeli embassy this year. Last year a Moroccan asylum seeker was jailed for killing a man in a Gaza-inspired terrorist attack.
— A shift in the nature of terrorism from organised cells and larger terror groups toward lone actors means new challenges for anti-terror police. Some successful recent terrorist incidents have been carried out by people who were not on the security services’ radar, acting alone, who often quite suddenly became radicalised to the point of violence by material they had found online.
— Investigators are dealing with a messier picture, finding terrorists with limited grasp of their stated cause, often with mental-health problems and personal issues as well as extremist ideological motivations.
She’s against gay marriage and doesn’t think women should be allowed to keep their maiden names on marriage, IIRC. You can imagine why some people might oppose her stances.
Its like how many mistakes can you make in one tweet.
I can't believe they used ChatGPt,
They use Mistral?
I was going to say "don't be silly, no one uses Mistral", but their small model is actually v popular on Ollama.
The hotel chain I’m staying in is currently using a chat bot agent that is done by a 3 person company in California - I don’t get how they’ve managed to convince this chain to use it but it’s not bad at routing issues and requests to the correct people
We were driving through downtown San Francisco last week and 80% of the billboards were for AI products!
(SF and the Bay Area are lovely, although certain posters here wouldn’t like it, what with SF being only 36.5% (non-Hispanic) white.)
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
"Deep fried rice"? FFS don't tell the chip shops up here in Scotland about that. They will deep fry anything.
I know you won't approve but I love San Diego and more especially the stretch from La Jolla to Del Mar. I imagine you've stayed at some of the really good hotels up on that stretch of the coast.
The seafood is just sublime - when I was trying to impress the future Mrs Stodge two decades ago, I took her to The Marine Room in La Jolla and spent more than I have before (and indeed since) on dinner but it was worth it.
I went to a lovely Japanese restaurant just south of Oakland. The food market in the SF Ferry Terminal building was good too.
Incapacity benefits are up 43 per cent on last year and double the pre-Covid level, with spending on sickness benefits set to reach £100 billion this decade
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
I don't think that losing Northern Ireland would be as an existential issue for a PM (any PM) as losing Wales or Scotland. They've been half out of the door for a long time and retention feels more like a Westminster project than one the regions are fully committed too.
Incapacity benefits are up 43 per cent on last year and double the pre-Covid level, with spending on sickness benefits set to reach £100 billion this decade
Incapacity benefits are up 43 per cent on last year and double the pre-Covid level, with spending on sickness benefits set to reach £100 billion this decade
She’s against gay marriage and doesn’t think women should be allowed to keep their maiden names on marriage, IIRC. You can imagine why some people might oppose her stances.
If you don't like gay marriage, don't get gay married.
She’s against gay marriage and doesn’t think women should be allowed to keep their maiden names on marriage, IIRC. You can imagine why some people might oppose her stances.
If you don't like gay marriage, don't get gay married.
It really doesn't seem complicated to me.
Also gay people have always been allowed to get married. Just not, previously, to people they loved.
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
The strongest and most public division I am seeing on the right is around Free Trade and something more like Victorian (and Edwardian?) Mercantilism. Imaging we were still in 1880 or 1905 is one of the Trumpist shticks. *
Perhaps the Rump Tories need to be on the Free Trade side, as the other is Trumpish - and will cripple the USA economy just as it did in the 1930s.
I'm not sure how they sell it however. If they are going populo-nationalist or being the "slightly different to Farage" party then they will be happy just to deceive in order to make short term gains.
* My off topic speculation - Hegseth may use the beards issue (around folliculitis) to try and re-segregate the US armed forces in some measure; only certain formations will be exempt from shaving requirements, and those will effectively be the black ones, where the issue is prominent.
I thought Farage was critical of Trump's tariff policies back in the spring and I don't detect an appetite for tariffs among Reform currently. As for the Conservatives, they have history around protectionism and tariffs from the 1930s (how often we are quoting that decade these days?).
There's a debate around whether the tariff policies helped promote economic recovery after the shock of the Depression and Wall Street Crash. You could certainly argue much of southern England (including around London) was doing very well in the late 1930s with a big expansion of housing (publicly owned and built for the most part). Both my sets of grandparents moved from East London into properties on new council estates in the mid-1930s - indeed, the same estate which was how my mother and father met.
She’s against gay marriage and doesn’t think women should be allowed to keep their maiden names on marriage, IIRC. You can imagine why some people might oppose her stances.
Exactly what ageing Japan needs - additional discouragement of young women getting married. Particularly given children out of wedlock is comparatively rare there (~2% versus close to 50% here).
Incapacity benefits are up 43 per cent on last year and double the pre-Covid level, with spending on sickness benefits set to reach £100 billion this decade
I am shocked, absolutely gobsmacked to find out the background of one of the leaders of the group encouraging people to support PA. Privately educated Oxford graduate lawyer. that place needs closing down as clearly producing too many extremists.
I know you won't approve but I love San Diego and more especially the stretch from La Jolla to Del Mar. I imagine you've stayed at some of the really good hotels up on that stretch of the coast.
The seafood is just sublime - when I was trying to impress the future Mrs Stodge two decades ago, I took her to The Marine Room in La Jolla and spent more than I have before (and indeed since) on dinner but it was worth it.
On the contrary I rather like San Diego
I have stayed at some pukka hotels in California - some of the best in the USA - but this trip is going to be less opulent, I suspect - at least until I get further north
I don’t mind. I’ve probably stayed at two hundred 5 star hotels. They tend to blur
Also, next month I’m staying on an entire private island
— Security officials are concerned by what they see as the unquantifiable potentially radicalising effect on thousands of people in Britain, especially young people, of watching high-resolution videos of people being killed in Gaza every day. That poses both an immediate threat and the danger of what McCallum has called “slower-burn radicalisation.”
— Anti-terror police have disrupted alleged plots targeting Jewish people since Oct 7. Two men are due to face trial later this month charged with allegedly planning a gun attack on Jews in north-west England. Police are still investigating an alleged plot against the Israeli embassy this year. Last year a Moroccan asylum seeker was jailed for killing a man in a Gaza-inspired terrorist attack.
— A shift in the nature of terrorism from organised cells and larger terror groups toward lone actors means new challenges for anti-terror police. Some successful recent terrorist incidents have been carried out by people who were not on the security services’ radar, acting alone, who often quite suddenly became radicalised to the point of violence by material they had found online.
— Investigators are dealing with a messier picture, finding terrorists with limited grasp of their stated cause, often with mental-health problems and personal issues as well as extremist ideological motivations.
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
I don't think that losing Northern Ireland would be as an existential issue for a PM (any PM) as losing Wales or Scotland. They've been half out of the door for a long time and retention feels more like a Westminster project than one the regions are fully committed too.
I don't see Ireland being kind whilst NI has a disfunctional Government and what a large fiscal deficit - so needing a modest subsidy.
(Numbers removed - the point stands but I'm not clear that they are correct.)
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, after expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a net poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
She’s against gay marriage and doesn’t think women should be allowed to keep their maiden names on marriage, IIRC. You can imagine why some people might oppose her stances.
She is also a national security hawk over China.
Fiscally though she is not dry, backing borrowing to fund spending
Ukraine branching out from attacking the Black Sea Fleet in the naval war.
"At 04:31 on October 4, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces struck the Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M corvette RFS Grad 575 on Lake Onega in Karelia. The vessel, equipped with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, was en route from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. The hit damaged the starboard engine compartment. “Grad” is one of Russia’s newest warships, commissioned in late 2022."
High up in the Apennines, in search of lunch, I came across what looks like a fairly new memorial to a wartime drop to the partisans. A US plane and crew with presumably two Brits along as SOE or intelligence.
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
I don't think that losing Northern Ireland would be as an existential issue for a PM (any PM) as losing Wales or Scotland. They've been half out of the door for a long time and retention feels more like a Westminster project than one the regions are fully committed too.
I don't see Ireland being kind whilst NI has a disfunctional Government and what a large fiscal deficit - so needing a modest subsidy.
(Numbers removed - the point stands but I'm not clear that they are correct.)
The Republic won't hesitate to take Northern Ireland.
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a bet poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
I think Caroline Nokes would be the one most likely to walk . The problem with the Badenoch policy is that she’s now boxed herself in and leaving the ECHR alone wont solve the problem . Are the Tories also going to leave the UN Convention Against Torture ?
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a bet poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
I think Caroline Nokes would be the one most likely to walk . The problem with the Badenoch policy is that she’s now boxed herself in and leaving the ECHR alone wont solve the problem . Are the Tories also going to leave the UN Convention Against Torture ?
Even Labour are saying the ECHR needs reform, so there must be something wrong with it.
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
I don't think that losing Northern Ireland would be as an existential issue for a PM (any PM) as losing Wales or Scotland. They've been half out of the door for a long time and retention feels more like a Westminster project than one the regions are fully committed too.
I don't see Ireland being kind whilst NI has a disfunctional Government and what a large fiscal deficit - so needing a modest subsidy.
(Numbers removed - the point stands but I'm not clear that they are correct.)
The Republic won't hesitate to take Northern Ireland.
Only if a clear majority of Northern Irish voters vote for that in a UK government approved border poll. They don’t want the Troubles to flare up again.
The UK government can of course refuse independence referendums again in Scotland forever as the SC affirmed if it wants and Wales is almost as pro Reform as England now anyway
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
I don't think that losing Northern Ireland would be as an existential issue for a PM (any PM) as losing Wales or Scotland. They've been half out of the door for a long time and retention feels more like a Westminster project than one the regions are fully committed too.
I would think the point is that the Tories of all people would insist on keeping NI. Even after plunging it into chaos, and upsetting the EU, notably Ireland as already pointed out.
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a bet poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
I think Caroline Nokes would be the one most likely to walk . The problem with the Badenoch policy is that she’s now boxed herself in and leaving the ECHR alone wont solve the problem . Are the Tories also going to leave the UN Convention Against Torture ?
Labour are planning to change the legal framework around this. If it works, it will be a moot point. If it doesn't work, then support for leaving will only grow.
Liberals and internationalists should be proposing a new framework for modern times rather than doggedly protecting the status quo as if it is scripture.
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a bet poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
I think Caroline Nokes would be the one most likely to walk . The problem with the Badenoch policy is that she’s now boxed herself in and leaving the ECHR alone wont solve the problem . Are the Tories also going to leave the UN Convention Against Torture ?
Even Labour are saying the ECHR needs reform, so there must be something wrong with it.
Yes but they’re not leaving it. The government needs to do something on judges interpretation of Article 8 .
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, after expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a net poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
If you are reading the party correctly - and it is your party after all - Cleverly for next leader is a great bet at 7. I'm going to do it, I think.
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
The strongest and most public division I am seeing on the right is around Free Trade and something more like Victorian (and Edwardian?) Mercantilism. Imaging we were still in 1880 or 1905 is one of the Trumpist shticks. *
Perhaps the Rump Tories need to be on the Free Trade side, as the other is Trumpish - and will cripple the USA economy just as it did in the 1930s.
I'm not sure how they sell it however. If they are going populo-nationalist or being the "slightly different to Farage" party then they will be happy just to deceive in order to make short term gains.
* My off topic speculation - Hegseth may use the beards issue (around folliculitis) to try and re-segregate the US armed forces in some measure; only certain formations will be exempt from shaving requirements, and those will effectively be the black ones, where the issue is prominent.
I thought Farage was critical of Trump's tariff policies back in the spring and I don't detect an appetite for tariffs among Reform currently. As for the Conservatives, they have history around protectionism and tariffs from the 1930s (how often we are quoting that decade these days?).
There's a debate around whether the tariff policies helped promote economic recovery after the shock of the Depression and Wall Street Crash. You could certainly argue much of southern England (including around London) was doing very well in the late 1930s with a big expansion of housing (publicly owned and built for the most part). Both my sets of grandparents moved from East London into properties on new council estates in the mid-1930s - indeed, the same estate which was how my mother and father met.
Fair comment. I'm not clear just who is which side, but neither are they, and Farage will say different things between last week and this week if he thinks he needs to for marketing reasons.
An isolationist trade policy (ie XYZ "First") seems to me to be a NatCon vs NeoCon ("Globalist") dividing line, and feeds into MAGA. I've seen the RINO jibe attached to the more traditional Conservative Right in the USA.
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a bet poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
I think Caroline Nokes would be the one most likely to walk . The problem with the Badenoch policy is that she’s now boxed herself in and leaving the ECHR alone wont solve the problem . Are the Tories also going to leave the UN Convention Against Torture ?
I predicted Caroline Noakes as the most likely defection a few weeks/months ago, however she is a deputy speaker which makes it less likely and someone responded to me that she is not favourable to the LDs (can't remember the details).
Will any of the One Nation Tory MPs walk after Badenochs ECHR announcement ?
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
It would be rather ironic if, expecting Farage to welcome another Tory MP it ends up Ed Davey welcoming his first defection of a Tory Home Counties MP following Kemi’s ECHR exit announcement today.
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a bet poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
I think Caroline Nokes would be the one most likely to walk . The problem with the Badenoch policy is that she’s now boxed herself in and leaving the ECHR alone wont solve the problem . Are the Tories also going to leave the UN Convention Against Torture ?
Indeed, I think this is mainly a political move by Kemi to ensure Jenrick can no longer outflank her on the right. Plus a shot at winning back Tory voters who have gone Reform and stopping more Tory MPs defecting to Farage.
It may backfire though if she leaks centrist Tory voters and MPs to the LDs while gaining little back from Reform and if she ends up seeing off the Jenrick threat only to be replaced by Cleverly instead from the moderate wing of the party
The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
After all the bother with NI and Brexit, you'd think that the Tories would have learnt something and rememebred something by now. The Bourbon biscuits of our time?
I don't think that losing Northern Ireland would be as an existential issue for a PM (any PM) as losing Wales or Scotland. They've been half out of the door for a long time and retention feels more like a Westminster project than one the regions are fully committed too.
I don't see Ireland being kind whilst NI has a disfunctional Government and what a large fiscal deficit - so needing a modest subsidy.
(Numbers removed - the point stands but I'm not clear that they are correct.)
The Republic won't hesitate to take Northern Ireland.
Only if a clear majority of Northern Irish voters vote for that in a UK government approved border poll. They don’t want the Troubles to flare up again.
The UK government can of course refuse independence referendums again in Scotland forever as the SC affirmed if it wants and Wales is almost as pro Reform as England now anyway
Exactly so. The greatest concern would be that there was clear consent. That's one reason why non-SF politicians in the Republic are content not to press the issue.
Comments
A few random thoughts for a fine but breezy Saturday.
947 MB is very low for early October but common enough for the depths of winter. I suspect increased SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures) and the energy from ex-Hurricane Humberto which was absorbed by the trough encouraged rapid cyclogenesis (the "deepening" of a Low Pressure area, the reduction in central pressure). It may be an outrider for the impacts of a warmer climate as we know a lot of the heat is absorbed by the oceans.
It was expected to be a very active tropical season for the United States but hasn't been so far - it wouldn't surprise if the season went on longer with some November and even December storms given the residual heat in the Gulf of whatever you want to call it.
Up East Ham High Street this morning and the coming of Popeyes Chicken still seems to be on course while a few doors up the fire damaged premises are back open for business - the traditional "tenancy at will" selling all manner of clothes, suitcases and bric a brac but the walls are still blackened by smoke damage. There's also a bloke walking up and down shouting about "deep fried rice" - I've had deep fried pizza in Naples but I think this may be something else.
The Conservative Party? Everyone's favourite subject. IF they want to differentiate themselves from Reform and indeed other parties by proclaiming the virtues of sound economic management, fine, but they need to explain why they didn't embrace those virtues during their time in Government AND if they want to reduce borrowing and the deficit (not the same thing) they need to be clear about how they will do it. Large scale spending cuts (especially if combined with tax cuts) may please the wealthy but not those dependent on public services. Even a measure as simple as unfreezing personal allowances and returning them to tracking RPI won't be cost free in terms of falling tax receipts.
I shall skirt Oakland
As an aside, I've had a couple of hard times in my life, and on a few occasions when younger I felt very low. I would say things like: "God, I'm so depressed!". But having seen people who the black dog has stalked, I now realise that I was not depressed, just feeling a little low. I was never that low. And when I was/am low, I have developed coping strategies. Which mostly consist of "Going for a long walk". Which should surprise no-one on here...
On topic, I see the Visit Cornwall managed to go bust, that quite impressive mismanagement.
https://cookingwithlei.com/simple-deep-fried-rice-cake/
(b) a lot of it was shit, therefore cheap - many folk up north got trapped in houses they couldn't sell
(c) Mrs T era, so lots of people being made redundant, many used their redundo to help pay - on which see (b) for many
I mean, there are so many ways to combine two simple ingredients - chicken and rice - it's absurd. Whether it's African or from a Hawker market in Singapore, it's just magical.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/16/european-convention-on-human-rights-brexit-uk-government
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/03/brexit-conservatives-european-convention-human-rights-echr
'Catherine Barnard, professor of European law at the University of Cambridge, warns of the consequences: leaving the convention would end any prospect of better deals for animal and plant trade. The price of food and other goods would rise, she believes, as trade falls. There’s more: she thinks the Good Friday agreement would fall apart overnight; the ECHR runs through it “as in a stick of rock”. And the fallout in retaliation would include losing data exchange on crime, and the ability to extradite criminals.'
* Ministers are furious with timing of productivity review which will lead to a significant downgrade in forecasts
* They think the OBR is far too gloomy - too quick to downgrade forecasts and reluctant to score growth measures
* Reeves is now publicly lobbying the OBR to include growth measures such as the EU mobility deal and trade deals in its forecasts. Few in government think it will work
* Jeremy Hunt on what it’s like in the Treasury when the forecasts come in: ‘You soon realise there’s only one number that really matters. The second page, bottom right (the headroom figure). When it goes the wrong way you remember Gordon Brown’s famous words to Tony Blair: ‘You’ve stolen my f***ing budget’.’
* Hunt has some sympathy with Reeves but says it ultimately comes down to a lack of headroom. ‘Previous chancellors had much more generous headroom. If you keep the headroom at £10 billion or less then you are taking a big risk because the average swing between fiscal events is £20 billion. It nearly caught me out and it looks like it has caught out Rachel Reeves this time’
https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1974413676300873782
The seafood is just sublime - when I was trying to impress the future Mrs Stodge two decades ago, I took her to The Marine Room in La Jolla and spent more than I have before (and indeed since) on dinner but it was worth it.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party's lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mxy2j2elro
Good stuff though.
And north London is a place of extremes.
Owning your own house in Hampstead is a very different life to renting a room in Tottenham.
ISTR at least one MP coming very unstuck for that reason. Or was that British Gas privatisation shares? It all runs together in the mind.
Perhaps the Rump Tories need to be on the Free Trade side, as the other is Trumpish - and will cripple the USA economy just as it did in the 1930s.
I'm not sure how they sell it however. If they are going populo-nationalist or being the "slightly different to Farage" party then they will be happy just to deceive in order to make short term gains.
* My off topic speculation - Hegseth may use the beards issue (around folliculitis) to try and re-segregate the US armed forces in some measure; only certain formations will be exempt from shaving requirements, and those will effectively be the black ones, where the issue is prominent.
— Security officials are concerned by what they see as the unquantifiable potentially radicalising effect on thousands of people in Britain, especially young people, of watching high-resolution videos of people being killed in Gaza every day. That poses both an immediate threat and the danger of what McCallum has called “slower-burn radicalisation.”
— Anti-terror police have disrupted alleged plots targeting Jewish people since Oct 7. Two men are due to face trial later this month charged with allegedly planning a gun attack on Jews in north-west England. Police are still investigating an alleged plot against the Israeli embassy this year. Last year a Moroccan asylum seeker was jailed for killing a man in a Gaza-inspired terrorist attack.
— A shift in the nature of terrorism from organised cells and larger terror groups toward lone actors means new challenges for anti-terror police. Some successful recent terrorist incidents have been carried out by people who were not on the security services’ radar, acting alone, who often quite suddenly became radicalised to the point of violence by material they had found online.
— Investigators are dealing with a messier picture, finding terrorists with limited grasp of their stated cause, often with mental-health problems and personal issues as well as extremist ideological motivations.
https://x.com/alexwickham/status/1974384069359083941
https://www.ubereats.com/gb/dish/edinburgh-sct/arancini?srsltid=AfmBOooUY5A2JOBXfDp1JwB4AGHUXS7Vt-qpWfASwzEWO91YZ2MaSdu7
Incapacity benefits are up 43 per cent on last year and double the pre-Covid level, with spending on sickness benefits set to reach £100 billion this decade
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/long-term-sickness-claims-rising-by-5000-a-day-j6djrpnqk
Polls close 1pm BST
https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/#live
https://www.idnes.cz/volby
https://www.volby.cz/app/ps2025/cs/home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Czech_parliamentary_election
Thanks,
DC
It really doesn't seem complicated to me.
There's a debate around whether the tariff policies helped promote economic recovery after the shock of the Depression and Wall Street Crash. You could certainly argue much of southern England (including around London) was doing very well in the late 1930s with a big expansion of housing (publicly owned and built for the most part). Both my sets of grandparents moved from East London into properties on new council estates in the mid-1930s - indeed, the same estate which was how my mother and father met.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15160161/Oxford-graduate-Defend-Juries-plotting-mass-action-overwhelm-police.html
There aren’t many left admittedly but still leaving the ECHR is certain to cause problems with that wing of the party .
I have stayed at some pukka hotels in California - some of the best in the USA - but this trip is going to be less opulent, I suspect - at least until I get further north
I don’t mind. I’ve probably stayed at two hundred 5 star hotels. They tend to blur
Also, next month I’m staying on an entire private island
Betting PostF1: split one stake to back Russell and Antonelli at 12 and 14 (boosted each way) for pole. Looked ultra-close between the top 5 in final practice.
https://morrisf1.blogspot.com/2025/10/singapore-grand-prix-2025-pre-qualifying.html
(Numbers removed - the point stands but I'm not clear that they are correct.)
Kemi will certainly hope though that overall the Conservatives make a net poll gain from Reform after this announcement and her proposal to scrap net zero. If not Cleverly will likely replace her within a year
Fiscally though she is not dry, backing borrowing to fund spending
"At 04:31 on October 4, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces struck the Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M corvette RFS Grad 575 on Lake Onega in Karelia. The vessel, equipped with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, was en route from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. The hit damaged the starboard engine compartment. “Grad” is one of Russia’s newest warships, commissioned in late 2022."
https://t.me/noel_reports/35123
- Right to life (Article 2)
- Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 3)
- Prohibition of slavery and forced labour (Article 4)
- Right to liberty and security (Article 5)
- Right to a fair trial (Article 6)
- No punishment without law (Article 7)
- Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8)
- Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Article 9)
- Freedom of expression (Article 10)
- Freedom of assembly and association (Article 11)
- Right to marry (Article 12)
- Right to an effective remedy (Article 13)
-
No effective remedy would be the icing on the cake for some. Comes under the heading of 'be careful what you wish for'The UK government can of course refuse independence referendums again in Scotland forever as the SC affirmed if it wants and Wales is almost as pro Reform as England now anyway
Liberals and internationalists should be proposing a new framework for modern times rather than doggedly protecting the status quo as if it is scripture.
This has been the main issue .
An isolationist trade policy (ie XYZ "First") seems to me to be a NatCon vs NeoCon ("Globalist") dividing line, and feeds into MAGA. I've seen the RINO jibe attached to the more traditional Conservative Right in the USA.
It may backfire though if she leaks centrist Tory voters and MPs to the LDs while gaining little back from Reform and if she ends up seeing off the Jenrick threat only to be replaced by Cleverly instead from the moderate wing of the party