Smeakybpartial quote from talktv, but Labour have picked up on it. Pochin is surely right here, I mean the figures do back her up. Farage won’t condemn it, and he shouldn’t either
Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.
I'd be interested in an advertiser's/marketers view on this. I suspect there are some hard stats behind the diversity we see in adverts - the most valuable customers tend to be in their 20s/30s ; Gen Z/Millenials with their woke views on stuff like race and trans. Does that offset the unease it generates in boomers?
Stuart in London seems to be asking for white DEI hires... and his accidental description of Farage was quite memeable too.
I thought it was just that if you only have white people in your adverts you'll get called racist so everyone has non-white people in which results in the ridiculous statistics.
It's an odd thing for somebody to get worked up about and a 'tell' if they do.
A ‘tell’ that they aren’t easily gaslit
So you get worked up about too many non-white people in ads? Really?
No, not really. The absurdity makes me laugh or roll my eyes, but I wouldn’t say I was worked up about it.
Well there you go then. But why do you say if somebody is (unlike you or I) all worked up about it, this means they are not easily gaslit? That's a positive comment about such people.
Ukrainians emphasise mobility, endurance and repairability as critical attributes for armour. In contrast, they generally perceive Western tanks as overly heavy and hard to repair. Crews may appreciate their survivability, but commanders find their availability diminishes quickly. Battle damage to armour is considered an inevitable consequence of its employment. As a result, the speed at which it can be recovered and repaired is critical to maintaining the tempo of operations. Where repair is likely to be slow and difficult, commanders struggle to find use cases that justify exposing their armour...
To be fair, western MBTs were designed with a cold war gone hot scenario with hordes of soviet tanks swarming into Germany. In that case a heavy, survivable tank in a pre-dug emplacement is exactly what you want. Long-term availability and maintenance was not of critical importance because the war was likely to be over in a few months at most.
This is an issue with most western combat systems, they are complex machines intended to fight a conflict of limited duration.
They were designed to be supported by a well equipped engineer corps. So American tanks assume that an entire spare power pack is available, with a crane to drop it into the tank.
Interesting point about the Israeli Merkava is that the armour itself, however, is sectional. Bit damaged? Unbolt and bolt a new bit on. That's not possible in most/all other designs though I wonder about the Boxer.
(The explosive reactive armour is of course already modular and easily replaceable on almost all modern designs AFAIK.)
One of th3 great strengths of the allies in North Western Europe (44-45) was just how many knocked out tanks were returned to service. The Germans had little ability to do same, with disastrous consequences for them. Add in the replacement pool and allied tank units could suffer fearsome punishment and be back fighting again in short order. German units were attrited to death.
The power of industry in war.
Many tank battles ended up with all the tanks "out of service" - certainly many allied offensives paused at that point.
The think was "u/s" was a bit of a moveable feast
In a large number of cases the tank had stalled, the driver had flooded the engine trying to get it going, no luck and the crew bailed out. The recovery crews simply drove them back to the lines, that night. Then there were al kinds of minor things, like a snapped track link.
The new Challenger 3 is over 80 tonnes. Recovering something that size is hard.
A T80 is maybe 45 tonnes; Germany's new Panther around 60.
Some controversy over that. https://www.defenceeye.co.uk/2025/10/09/challenger-3-an-overweight-tank/ ...The “new news”? That Challenger 3 is facing weight and thus power problems. The in-service Challenger 3, with all the add-on armour options, could come in at more than a dozen tonnes over the 66t weight mentioned in the RBSL infographic that we have reproduced with this article. Defence Eye hears from senior British Army sources that if all the add-on armour packages are fitted, Britain’s future main battle tank is significantly over this. The most recent but not only rise in weight has apparently come from adding extra “anti-drone armour” to the tank’s upper surfaces...
Impregnable but immobile.
If a tank is immobilised, it's artillery If the ammo then runs out, it's a bunker
If you are going to be in a battlefield, then a tank is the best place to be. Or at least The Chieftain says they are. But I am beginning to doubt...
Ukrainians emphasise mobility, endurance and repairability as critical attributes for armour. In contrast, they generally perceive Western tanks as overly heavy and hard to repair. Crews may appreciate their survivability, but commanders find their availability diminishes quickly. Battle damage to armour is considered an inevitable consequence of its employment. As a result, the speed at which it can be recovered and repaired is critical to maintaining the tempo of operations. Where repair is likely to be slow and difficult, commanders struggle to find use cases that justify exposing their armour...
To be fair, western MBTs were designed with a cold war gone hot scenario with hordes of soviet tanks swarming into Germany. In that case a heavy, survivable tank in a pre-dug emplacement is exactly what you want. Long-term availability and maintenance was not of critical importance because the war was likely to be over in a few months at most.
This is an issue with most western combat systems, they are complex machines intended to fight a conflict of limited duration.
They were designed to be supported by a well equipped engineer corps. So American tanks assume that an entire spare power pack is available, with a crane to drop it into the tank.
Interesting point about the Israeli Merkava is that the armour itself, however, is sectional. Bit damaged? Unbolt and bolt a new bit on. That's not possible in most/all other designs though I wonder about the Boxer.
(The explosive reactive armour is of course already modular and easily replaceable on almost all modern designs AFAIK.)
One of th3 great strengths of the allies in North Western Europe (44-45) was just how many knocked out tanks were returned to service. The Germans had little ability to do same, with disastrous consequences for them. Add in the replacement pool and allied tank units could suffer fearsome punishment and be back fighting again in short order. German units were attrited to death.
The power of industry in war.
Many tank battles ended up with all the tanks "out of service" - certainly many allied offensives paused at that point.
The think was "u/s" was a bit of a moveable feast
In a large number of cases the tank had stalled, the driver had flooded the engine trying to get it going, no luck and the crew bailed out. The recovery crews simply drove them back to the lines, that night. Then there were al kinds of minor things, like a snapped track link.
The new Challenger 3 is over 80 tonnes. Recovering something that size is hard.
A T80 is maybe 45 tonnes; Germany's new Panther around 60.
Some controversy over that. https://www.defenceeye.co.uk/2025/10/09/challenger-3-an-overweight-tank/ ...The “new news”? That Challenger 3 is facing weight and thus power problems. The in-service Challenger 3, with all the add-on armour options, could come in at more than a dozen tonnes over the 66t weight mentioned in the RBSL infographic that we have reproduced with this article. Defence Eye hears from senior British Army sources that if all the add-on armour packages are fitted, Britain’s future main battle tank is significantly over this. The most recent but not only rise in weight has apparently come from adding extra “anti-drone armour” to the tank’s upper surfaces...
Impregnable but immobile.
If a tank is immobilised, it's artillery If the ammo then runs out, it's a bunker
If you are going to be in a battlefield, then a tank is the best place to be. Or at least The Chieftain says they are. But I am beginning to doubt...
I once went to a firepower demonstration on Salisbury Plain. The real eye opener for me was the sheer noise, relentless.
Folks - it's not some grand conspiracy to impose a woke mindset on everyone. It's just that these advertising companies know what hits their target market of young, aspirational people with growing incomes, who are overwhelmingly on the left on cultural issues. That's all there is to it.
I disagree. I think it’s more to do with the fact (as I think someone else pointed out earlier) that advertisers now need to walk a very delicate tightrope for fear of opprobrium. The easiest route is to tick as many boxes as one can, so as to avoid any critical voices saying there is a lack of representation.
Money talks louder than some nebulous fear of opprobrium.
Pochin apologises… and it’s a politicians apology “for any offence caused”
My comments on a Talk TV phone-in earlier today were phrased poorly and I unreservedly apologise for any offence caused, which was not my intention.
The point I was making is that many British TV adverts have gone DEI mad and are now unrepresentative of British society as a whole. This is not an attack on any group but an observation about balance and fairness in how our country is portrayed on screen.
A study commissioned by Channel 4 as part of its Mirror on the Industry project, found that Black people were featured in more than half of adverts in 2022, up sharply from 37 per cent in 2020 following the Black Lives Matter movement. By contrast, Black people make up around 4 per cent of the population in England and Wales, according to the 2021 Census.
Representation in advertising should reflect the diversity of modern Britain, but it should also be proportionate and inclusive of everyone. My comments were made in that context, and I stand by the principle that equality should mean fairness for all.
I don’t really understand how you get a diverse set of adverts to somehow coordinate the ethnicity of their actors…
I understand her sentiment, a bit. I have noticed and commented on how every family in adverts is now mixed race. But it’s pretty obvious why. I don’t think advertisers are trying to somehow gaslight people. They are trying to sell stuff.
It’s up to advertisings agencies and their customers how they cast commercials, but you can be sure that, if they were cast in proportion to our diverse society, there’d be lots of protests about ‘not seeing people like me on tv’
Because people are not uniformly spread, it is a nonsense to say there are 4% Black people. In some areas, there are many, many more; in others, none. This means that for every viewer, the proportion on telly is wrong. There is no right answer.
But go back to the original and note that disabled people don't count, just as they did not matter when able-bodied trans & terfs were divvying up the disabled toilets between them.
In the context of many, many adverts, it's the fact that a disabled person is disabled that doesn't count. Disabled people buy toothpaste, buy cereal, buy clothes. That's what counts. I gather that adverts are often not portraying the actual age group the merchandise is aimed at, as well, because people don't see themselves as that old, for example.
Yes. Eg ads for stairlifts often feature a person who looks like they could run a half marathon before breakfast.
I do get the sense that there is a lot of arrogance in the legal profession and they could do with brought down a peg or two as the bankers were in 2008. It also draws attention to the fact that the City of London has its own police force. I would like to know why this is deemed to be necessary.
I doubt the public will be rioting over a mansion tax on properties worth over 2 million pounds.
The Daily Mail moaning that it’s an attack on hard work and aspiration is laughable . There are millions of people who work hard and would never be able to afford a home of that value .
Folks - it's not some grand conspiracy to impose a woke mindset on everyone. It's just that these advertising companies know what hits their target market of young, aspirational people with growing incomes, who are overwhelmingly on the left on cultural issues. That's all there is to it.
It isn't a 'grand conspiracy' (what is?), but the rest of this is pretty inaccurate for something stated with such confident finality 'folks'. Different products and services all have very different target demographics, but the portrayal of an unrepresentative ethnic make up is ubiquitous. The presence of ethnic minority actors playing characters who would have been white in historical drama is clearly not a response to the wishes and mores of viewers of historical drama - it is an attempt to lead culture, not a reflection of consumer wishes.
I don't get particularly exercised by all this. There's clearly an ideal of advertisement casting managers that is a mixed race family - usually afro-caribbean and white. In some ways there's a nice aspect - they're envisaging a colourblind society. I think it also has to do with London being where most of the biggest companies are located. Where it becomes less desirable is if it leads to a de-facto soft ban on white families being portrayed. That's swapping one form of prejudice for another.
If TFL were to decide to crack down on fare dodging and they made a video to advertise their harsher enforcement, would the fare dodgers in the video be ethnically representative of the offenders?
I expect we'd see just young white men jumping gates, and they'd probably spit in any non white face they saw
Smeakybpartial quote from talktv, but Labour have picked up on it. Pochin is surely right here, I mean the figures do back her up. Farage won’t condemn it, and he shouldn’t either
Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.
I'd be interested in an advertiser's/marketers view on this. I suspect there are some hard stats behind the diversity we see in adverts - the most valuable customers tend to be in their 20s/30s ; Gen Z/Millenials with their woke views on stuff like race and trans. Does that offset the unease it generates in boomers?
Stuart in London seems to be asking for white DEI hires... and his accidental description of Farage was quite memeable too.
I thought it was just that if you only have white people in your adverts you'll get called racist so everyone has non-white people in which results in the ridiculous statistics.
It's an odd thing for somebody to get worked up about and a 'tell' if they do.
A ‘tell’ that they aren’t easily gaslit
So you get worked up about too many non-white people in ads? Really?
No, not really. The absurdity makes me laugh or roll my eyes, but I wouldn’t say I was worked up about it.
That's the point, it's absurd rather than upsetting. You might wonder whom the advertisers think their targets are
As someone said upthread, it’s highly unlikely that youngsters watch much tv, and even less so the ads anymore anyway. My son, who is nearly 6, can’t get his head around the fact that we never used to be able to rewind live tv, or that we might miss a program if we weren’t in, and would never get the chance to see it again.
At the other end too. My dad who's 92 cannot bear adverts now. Finds them genuinely distressing. Not all the black faces, just the relentlessness of it all and the length of the breaks. 8 mins of prog then 5 of charity appeals, will writing services, saga river cruises, etc etc, repeat cycle.
I look back fondly on my childhood in the 60s and 70s, those halcyon days when black and Asian faces rarely disrupted our viewing and were certainly absent in adverts, and Alf Garnett and The Black and White Minstrel Show ruled the roost...... Maybe a slight over-correction for the past is no bad thing.
I doubt the public will be rioting over a mansion tax on properties worth over 2 million pounds.
The Daily Mail moaning that it’s an attack on hard work and aspiration is laughable . There are millions of people who work hard and would never be able to afford a home of that value .
It's just going to be CGT on the gain when sold, isn't it?
I look back fondly on my childhood in the 60s and 70s, those halcyon days when black and Asian faces rarely disrupted our viewing and were certainly absent in adverts, and Alf Garnett and The Black and White Minstrel Show ruled the roost...... Maybe a slight over-correction for the past is no bad thing.
Alf Garnett is not a good choice - he was the butt of the joke.
If TFL were to decide to crack down on fare dodging and they made a video to advertise their harsher enforcement, would the fare dodgers in the video be ethnically representative of the offenders?
I expect we'd see just young white men jumping gates, and they'd probably spit in any non white face they saw
Terrible all this prejudice against white people. We need an affirmative action programme to remove the societal barriers preventing us from reaching positions of wealth and power.
I look back fondly on my childhood in the 60s and 70s, those halcyon days when black and Asian faces rarely disrupted our viewing and were certainly absent in adverts, and Alf Garnett and The Black and White Minstrel Show ruled the roost...... Maybe a slight over-correction for the past is no bad thing.
Alf Garnett is not a good choice - he was the butt of the joke.
For Johnny Speight, perhaps so. But not for many viewers, who found Garnett's racist and misogynistic discourse, and his approval of Enoch Powell, rather appealing. It was rather like an early Reform party political broadcast. I can imagine Lee Anderson playing a modern-day Alf Garnett.
"Mate, I can't do anything but tell it to you straight. This Canada thing is literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The Canadians ran an advertisement showing Ronald Reagan being against tariffs. Guess what? Ronald Reagan was against tariffs." https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/1982151141715562561
Smeakybpartial quote from talktv, but Labour have picked up on it. Pochin is surely right here, I mean the figures do back her up. Farage won’t condemn it, and he shouldn’t either
Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.
I'd be interested in an advertiser's/marketers view on this. I suspect there are some hard stats behind the diversity we see in adverts - the most valuable customers tend to be in their 20s/30s ; Gen Z/Millenials with their woke views on stuff like race and trans. Does that offset the unease it generates in boomers?
Stuart in London seems to be asking for white DEI hires... and his accidental description of Farage was quite memeable too.
I thought it was just that if you only have white people in your adverts you'll get called racist so everyone has non-white people in which results in the ridiculous statistics.
It's an odd thing for somebody to get worked up about and a 'tell' if they do.
A ‘tell’ that they aren’t easily gaslit
So you get worked up about too many non-white people in ads? Really?
No, not really. The absurdity makes me laugh or roll my eyes, but I wouldn’t say I was worked up about it.
Well there you go then. But why do you say if somebody is (unlike you or I) all worked up about it, this means they are not easily gaslit? That's a positive comment about such people.
I don’t think being worked up about it is a bad thing. That they’ve noticed it and correctly say it’s nothing like reality shows that they’re aware and not easily fooled
Pentagon signs contact for drones with ... Don Jnr on its board.
The Pentagon somehow determined that the best supplier available for drone parts just happened to be the one that had one of President's sons on its board -- government-wide graft going on. https://x.com/MattGertz/status/1981809738011849043
There’s a joke in there about the Labour Party surely not being that toxic
I’ve got straight to work with @Keir_Starmer to discuss how we will work closely together to defeat the forces of division and hate, and to reunite the country.
Ukrainians emphasise mobility, endurance and repairability as critical attributes for armour. In contrast, they generally perceive Western tanks as overly heavy and hard to repair. Crews may appreciate their survivability, but commanders find their availability diminishes quickly. Battle damage to armour is considered an inevitable consequence of its employment. As a result, the speed at which it can be recovered and repaired is critical to maintaining the tempo of operations. Where repair is likely to be slow and difficult, commanders struggle to find use cases that justify exposing their armour...
To be fair, western MBTs were designed with a cold war gone hot scenario with hordes of soviet tanks swarming into Germany. In that case a heavy, survivable tank in a pre-dug emplacement is exactly what you want. Long-term availability and maintenance was not of critical importance because the war was likely to be over in a few months at most.
This is an issue with most western combat systems, they are complex machines intended to fight a conflict of limited duration.
They were designed to be supported by a well equipped engineer corps. So American tanks assume that an entire spare power pack is available, with a crane to drop it into the tank.
Interesting point about the Israeli Merkava is that the armour itself, however, is sectional. Bit damaged? Unbolt and bolt a new bit on. That's not possible in most/all other designs though I wonder about the Boxer.
(The explosive reactive armour is of course already modular and easily replaceable on almost all modern designs AFAIK.)
One of th3 great strengths of the allies in North Western Europe (44-45) was just how many knocked out tanks were returned to service. The Germans had little ability to do same, with disastrous consequences for them. Add in the replacement pool and allied tank units could suffer fearsome punishment and be back fighting again in short order. German units were attrited to death.
The power of industry in war.
Many tank battles ended up with all the tanks "out of service" - certainly many allied offensives paused at that point.
The think was "u/s" was a bit of a moveable feast
In a large number of cases the tank had stalled, the driver had flooded the engine trying to get it going, no luck and the crew bailed out. The recovery crews simply drove them back to the lines, that night. Then there were al kinds of minor things, like a snapped track link.
The new Challenger 3 is over 80 tonnes. Recovering something that size is hard.
A T80 is maybe 45 tonnes; Germany's new Panther around 60.
Some controversy over that. https://www.defenceeye.co.uk/2025/10/09/challenger-3-an-overweight-tank/ ...The “new news”? That Challenger 3 is facing weight and thus power problems. The in-service Challenger 3, with all the add-on armour options, could come in at more than a dozen tonnes over the 66t weight mentioned in the RBSL infographic that we have reproduced with this article. Defence Eye hears from senior British Army sources that if all the add-on armour packages are fitted, Britain’s future main battle tank is significantly over this. The most recent but not only rise in weight has apparently come from adding extra “anti-drone armour” to the tank’s upper surfaces...
Impregnable but immobile.
If a tank is immobilised, it's artillery If the ammo then runs out, it's a bunker
If you are going to be in a battlefield, then a tank is the best place to be. Or at least The Chieftain says they are. But I am beginning to doubt...
The armour on the Challengers is literally bolt on boxes. I’ve actually seen a Challenger 1 without it. Looks very different.
The point is that it’s configurable. And changes over the life of the tank.
If TFL were to decide to crack down on fare dodging and they made a video to advertise their harsher enforcement, would the fare dodgers in the video be ethnically representative of the offenders?
I expect we'd see just young white men jumping gates, and they'd probably spit in any non white face they saw
Terrible all this prejudice against white people. We need an affirmative action programme to remove the societal barriers preventing us from reaching positions of wealth and power.
I caused something like panic at a diversity meeting at the bank not long ago.
They were patting themselves on the back about diversity. Then someone suggested broadening the intake by having a “take your neighbours kids to work day”
At that point I actually guffawed. And suggested that a more interesting idea would be a “the cleaner’s and security guard’s children to come to the bank” day.
Oh sure, lots of non-white faces in the bank. But the groups missing are just as interesting.
It does say a lot though, nationalists are just like nationalists. There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same. The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
“But there was no energy, no ideas and he didn’t have any answers to our questions. It was really very damaging.”
I'm reminded of Basil Fawlty to the moaning guest.
It's the UK in a low growth era with maxed out public finances. What do they expect ... milk and honey and thundering herds of wildebeest?
A plan isn't that much to ask....
They don't need a plan. They need a sustained economic upswing.
Even they must realise that repeatedly shafting the private sector and shovelling money at layabouts isn't the best way to get the economy working again?
You'd think that about two hours in an undergraduate level economics course, or a week working in any private sector firm, would teach them that, but evidently that's beyond them.
Still, why did anyone expect anything better from Labour?
Mmm if only your Thatcher re-tread ideas were implemented we'd be powering ahead of all our peers. Easy peasy. Wonder why it doesn't happen. Ship of fools.
So you're saying that repeatedly kicking the private sector in the balls and shovelling money at layabouts IS the right way to get the economy working again? Or that helping the private sector and rewarding enterprise and productivity would harm it?
If so, I can recommend some basic economics lessons.
If not, what's your point, beyond some juvenile sarcasm, which is fine, and a dislike of Mrs Thatcher?
Or is it maybe that the left in this country is totally out of ideas about how to get the economy working again? If so, they took about a year to get to where the Conservatives got to in 14.
It does say a lot though, nationalists are just like nationalists. There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same. The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
You're overthinking this. The graffiti is just quite funny.
Well the F1 qualifying might change some bets for the championship.
Stuck a tenner on Norris after FP3. Looked like he had the speed there. If it's nip and tuck between him and Verstappen he's got a big cushion for the remaining races. Piastri looks cooked.
We've come a very long way from Trump's (dubious) legal justification of presidential power to impose tariffs being founded on the existence of an economic emergency.
It does say a lot though, nationalists are just like nationalists. There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same. The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
You're overthinking this. The graffiti is just quite funny.
I laughed and I'm a Ref supporter.
I took it more as a comment on the madness that is a closely fought by-election, where politicans of all stripes suddenly pretend a place they've never been to before is the centre of the universe for three weeks, then disappear as suddenly as they came, never to be seen again.
Smeakybpartial quote from talktv, but Labour have picked up on it. Pochin is surely right here, I mean the figures do back her up. Farage won’t condemn it, and he shouldn’t either
Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.
I'd be interested in an advertiser's/marketers view on this. I suspect there are some hard stats behind the diversity we see in adverts - the most valuable customers tend to be in their 20s/30s ; Gen Z/Millenials with their woke views on stuff like race and trans. Does that offset the unease it generates in boomers?
Stuart in London seems to be asking for white DEI hires... and his accidental description of Farage was quite memeable too.
I thought it was just that if you only have white people in your adverts you'll get called racist so everyone has non-white people in which results in the ridiculous statistics.
It's an odd thing for somebody to get worked up about and a 'tell' if they do.
A ‘tell’ that they aren’t easily gaslit
So you get worked up about too many non-white people in ads? Really?
No, not really. The absurdity makes me laugh or roll my eyes, but I wouldn’t say I was worked up about it.
That's the point, it's absurd rather than upsetting. You might wonder whom the advertisers think their targets are
As someone said upthread, it’s highly unlikely that youngsters watch much tv, and even less so the ads anymore anyway. My son, who is nearly 6, can’t get his head around the fact that we never used to be able to rewind live tv, or that we might miss a program if we weren’t in, and would never get the chance to see it again.
At the other end too. My dad who's 92 cannot bear adverts now. Finds them genuinely distressing. Not all the black faces, just the relentlessness of it all and the length of the breaks. 8 mins of prog then 5 of charity appeals, will writing services, saga river cruises, etc etc, repeat cycle.
I moved from Classic FM to Radio 3 in the car because of all the cancer adverts. Of course now I have to risk "jazz hour" and "world music" but nothing's perfect.
"The Metropolitan Police has issued a direct appeal to a migrant sex offender to hand himself in, after he was mistakenly released from a prison in Essex on Friday and travelled to east London."
"The Metropolitan Police has issued a direct appeal to a migrant sex offender to hand himself in, after he was mistakenly released from a prison in Essex on Friday and travelled to east London."
That'll do it.
Translated....
We are so incomponent that despite all the CCTV that covers London we haven't got a scooby....
Smeakybpartial quote from talktv, but Labour have picked up on it. Pochin is surely right here, I mean the figures do back her up. Farage won’t condemn it, and he shouldn’t either
Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.
I'd be interested in an advertiser's/marketers view on this. I suspect there are some hard stats behind the diversity we see in adverts - the most valuable customers tend to be in their 20s/30s ; Gen Z/Millenials with their woke views on stuff like race and trans. Does that offset the unease it generates in boomers?
Stuart in London seems to be asking for white DEI hires... and his accidental description of Farage was quite memeable too.
I thought it was just that if you only have white people in your adverts you'll get called racist so everyone has non-white people in which results in the ridiculous statistics.
It's an odd thing for somebody to get worked up about and a 'tell' if they do.
A ‘tell’ that they aren’t easily gaslit
So you get worked up about too many non-white people in ads? Really?
No, not really. The absurdity makes me laugh or roll my eyes, but I wouldn’t say I was worked up about it.
That's the point, it's absurd rather than upsetting. You might wonder whom the advertisers think their targets are
As someone said upthread, it’s highly unlikely that youngsters watch much tv, and even less so the ads anymore anyway. My son, who is nearly 6, can’t get his head around the fact that we never used to be able to rewind live tv, or that we might miss a program if we weren’t in, and would never get the chance to see it again.
At the other end too. My dad who's 92 cannot bear adverts now. Finds them genuinely distressing. Not all the black faces, just the relentlessness of it all and the length of the breaks. 8 mins of prog then 5 of charity appeals, will writing services, saga river cruises, etc etc, repeat cycle.
I moved from Classic FM to Radio 3 in the car because of all the cancer adverts. Of course now I have to risk "jazz hour" and "world music" but nothing's perfect.
You don't like jazz ? And sometime even the world music stuff is really good.
In any event BBC Sounds allows you to curate your own listening experience.
We've come a very long way from Trump's (dubious) legal justification of presidential power to impose tariffs being founded on the existence of an economic emergency.
Exactly this.
An embarrassingly obvious point, but...
This. Is. Illegal.
If anything like the rule of law were in force, Trump couldn't arbitrarily increase a tariff because he is annoyed.
Smeakybpartial quote from talktv, but Labour have picked up on it. Pochin is surely right here, I mean the figures do back her up. Farage won’t condemn it, and he shouldn’t either
Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.
I'd be interested in an advertiser's/marketers view on this. I suspect there are some hard stats behind the diversity we see in adverts - the most valuable customers tend to be in their 20s/30s ; Gen Z/Millenials with their woke views on stuff like race and trans. Does that offset the unease it generates in boomers?
Stuart in London seems to be asking for white DEI hires... and his accidental description of Farage was quite memeable too.
I thought it was just that if you only have white people in your adverts you'll get called racist so everyone has non-white people in which results in the ridiculous statistics.
It's an odd thing for somebody to get worked up about and a 'tell' if they do.
A ‘tell’ that they aren’t easily gaslit
So you get worked up about too many non-white people in ads? Really?
No, not really. The absurdity makes me laugh or roll my eyes, but I wouldn’t say I was worked up about it.
That's the point, it's absurd rather than upsetting. You might wonder whom the advertisers think their targets are
As someone said upthread, it’s highly unlikely that youngsters watch much tv, and even less so the ads anymore anyway. My son, who is nearly 6, can’t get his head around the fact that we never used to be able to rewind live tv, or that we might miss a program if we weren’t in, and would never get the chance to see it again.
At the other end too. My dad who's 92 cannot bear adverts now. Finds them genuinely distressing. Not all the black faces, just the relentlessness of it all and the length of the breaks. 8 mins of prog then 5 of charity appeals, will writing services, saga river cruises, etc etc, repeat cycle.
I moved from Classic FM to Radio 3 in the car because of all the cancer adverts. Of course now I have to risk "jazz hour" and "world music" but nothing's perfect.
You don't like jazz ? And sometime even the world music stuff is really good.
In any event BBC Sounds allows you to curate your own listening experience.
I do, both, on occasion but I like predictability when driving. Hence Classic FM. Pap.
I thought it was the Tories that were going to privatise the NHS?
One in 10 NHS appointments and operations are now being carried out by the private sector.
Use of the private sector has surged under Labour, with new figures published on Saturday showing more than six million operations, tests and appointments for NHS patients were carried out privately last year – a rise of more than 8 per cent from 2023.
It does say a lot though, nationalists are just like nationalists. There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same. The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
I don't necessarily believe that was spray painted by some nationalist. More like a Labour ruffian from Lansbury Park.
I am not very bright so I may be misunderstanding your narrative. If I am unusually reading it appropriately I don't believe your analysis to be correct.
We've come a very long way from Trump's (dubious) legal justification of presidential power to impose tariffs being founded on the existence of an economic emergency.
"The Metropolitan Police has issued a direct appeal to a migrant sex offender to hand himself in, after he was mistakenly released from a prison in Essex on Friday and travelled to east London."
That'll do it.
He already tried five times to hand himself in. Not sure he needs to try again.
I thought it was the Tories that were going to privatise the NHS?
One in 10 NHS appointments and operations are now being carried out by the private sector.
Use of the private sector has surged under Labour, with new figures published on Saturday showing more than six million operations, tests and appointments for NHS patients were carried out privately last year – a rise of more than 8 per cent from 2023.
Wonder why.
I am sure the donors to Wes Streeting are not relevant here!!
Of interest to those following the Ukraine war. How Russia and Ukraine are adapting their warfare. Makes the point that repairability of tanks is more important than ultimate protection in the era of drones. Each tank expects to be hit several times on one excursion. Question is, how easy is it to repair the damage to the armour?
[Edit: it's 3:10am according to my wristwatch, which doesn't automatically go back, but 2:10am according to my laptop, which does. PB time matches that according to my view. I don't know what the time says in your location.]
Of interest to those following the Ukraine war. How Russia and Ukraine are adapting their warfare. Makes the point that repairability of tanks is more important than ultimate protection in the era of drones. Each tank expects to be hit several times on one excursion. Question is, how easy is it to repair the damage to the armour?
This is also a means of litigating qualified immunity. And a good way of starkly presenting what a bullshit doctrine it has become.
This is actually brilliant. The DC guy arrested for playing Darth Vader music while walking behind the National Guard, he’s suing the individual National Guardsman. These guys are not gonna like having to defend themselves in a never-ending stream of lawsuits. Going to make them think twice about acting like Nazis… or stormtroopers. .. https://x.com/aravosis/status/1982204101736673572
The supermarkets seem to have a pathetic belief that Reeves or the Labour party generally does basic economics, or even elementary logic.
If so, amazing how that's survived more than a year of their dismal self-destructive incompetence.
She will raise taxes, food prices will go up even more, then when Tesco announce their profits, which are tiny in relation to turnover, the politicians will blame ‘corporate greed’
The increases we see in the supermarket are cumulative too given the increases are also handed down to the product manufacturers and producers none of whom are making a fortune either.
F1: I'll start the pre-race ramble soon but may end up delaying it so the markets can finally be put up, assuming they're as lax as they were last time...
I do get the sense that there is a lot of arrogance in the legal profession and they could do with brought down a peg or two as the bankers were in 2008. It also draws attention to the fact that the City of London has its own police force. I would like to know why this is deemed to be necessary.
Yes. I have been. Hopefully this all goes away for Dan. He’s one of the good guys,
We've come a very long way from Trump's (dubious) legal justification of presidential power to impose tariffs being founded on the existence of an economic emergency.
Exactly this.
An embarrassingly obvious point, but...
This. Is. Illegal.
If anything like the rule of law were in force, Trump couldn't arbitrarily increase a tariff because he is annoyed.
I thought it was the Tories that were going to privatise the NHS?
One in 10 NHS appointments and operations are now being carried out by the private sector.
Use of the private sector has surged under Labour, with new figures published on Saturday showing more than six million operations, tests and appointments for NHS patients were carried out privately last year – a rise of more than 8 per cent from 2023.
Wonder why.
I am sure the donors to Wes Streeting are not relevant here!!
Lucy Powell secures an ex-officio seat on the party’s National Executive committee and what she makes of the rest of the role comes down to how much energy and flair she puts into it, and what she is allowed to make of it by a leadership which very obviously preferred Bridget Phillipson. [But] Being projected as the loyalist was not a tonic for her chances, but poison to them.
We know from the campaign [Powell ] fought that she doesn’t think much of the prime minister’s strategy and has no higher opinion of his tactics. One of the more forceful points made in her acceptance speech was that Labour needs to be “bolder” about delivering change and conveying its sense of purpose. Hardcore Starmerites, such as they are, may be tempted to try to marginalise the new deputy. I pick up some cabinet-level snorting that she will be a powerless irrelevance to the big picture. A sneery response is, I think, a mistake and one which can only compound the anxiety in Labour ranks that Number 10 is hunkering down into bunker mode.
The dreadful rout in the Caerphilly byelection has reinforced her message that the party is losing as many votes, if not more, to its left as it is to Reform. Labour people are not wrong to fear that Caerphilly may be the harbinger of evisceration in next May’s elections in England, Scotland and Wales.
Is Sir Keir willing to find a way to live with a woman he unceremoniously sacked? He claims he will be “delighted” to work with her and I’m told the pair had a private conversation after their formal speeches at the results event. She’s indicating that she is willing to bury the hatchet and wants to help the government not destabilise it. He’s been landed with a deputy he didn’t want, but being resentful about that isn’t going to get the prime minister anywhere.
There is peril and opportunity here. The peril is that Number 10 freezes her out, she grows angry and every time she opens her mouth it is gleefully interpreted by the government’s many enemies as an assault on the prime minister. The opportunity is for Labour to deploy her as a punchy advocate of the party’s values and achievements, and the facilitator of a constructively critical conversation about where it is going wrong. She says she wants to “speak truth to power”. Her chances of being heard greatly depend on whether power is willing to listen.
I thought it was the Tories that were going to privatise the NHS?
One in 10 NHS appointments and operations are now being carried out by the private sector.
Use of the private sector has surged under Labour, with new figures published on Saturday showing more than six million operations, tests and appointments for NHS patients were carried out privately last year – a rise of more than 8 per cent from 2023.
Wonder why.
I am sure the donors to Wes Streeting are not relevant here!!
Companies that have recently donated to Labour were awarded contracts worth almost £138m during the party’s first year in government, according to new research that raises fresh concerns about the relationship between political donations and public spending.
We've come a very long way from Trump's (dubious) legal justification of presidential power to impose tariffs being founded on the existence of an economic emergency.
Exactly this.
An embarrassingly obvious point, but...
This. Is. Illegal.
If anything like the rule of law were in force, Trump couldn't arbitrarily increase a tariff because he is annoyed.
But she wasn’t wrong and that tweet doesn’t really do that. She supported remain but respected the democratic will. She may not have many positive political qualities but I wouldn’t criticise her for that.
It does say a lot though, nationalists are just like nationalists. There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same. The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
I don't necessarily believe that was spray painted by some nationalist. More like a Labour ruffian from Lansbury Park.
I am not very bright so I may be misunderstanding your narrative. If I am unusually reading it appropriately I don't believe your analysis to be correct.
You dont think the Nats in Scotland and the Nats in Wales are the same cloth as Reform? The only difference is experience in governing. They seed the same discontent.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
F1: had a free bet from Betfair, so I chucked this on Norris at evens for the title. I've laid Piastri heavily (too early in the season, so the odds weren't great, but still) but have him green for top 3. Verstappen's my best win result there, so balanced things out a bit.
Long run into the first corner so plenty of scope for Hamilton or Russell to benefit from a slipstream or handbrake from Norris or Leclerc. He'll also have priority in pit stops which might prove tricky for one Ferrari, and the Verstappen threat might be less than expected if he keeps sliding and his tyres get ruined.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
That's not quite true.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Of course he was wrong. He’s basically saying she should have ignored the democratic wish of the majority. She campaigned for remain, but respected the result, can’t see what is wrong with that unlike all those who tried to overturn it with a so called people’s vote.
Sunak was Chancellor prior to Truss. He was pretty responsible for the legacy too.
They always find white men for adverts about sex pests
Wtf does that mean?
I'm somewhat amused that you either couldn't, or pretended that you couldn't, work this out on your own
Oh come on we know the biggest sex pests on the tube are middle aged white businessmen in a shirt and tie 😉
We do know that women from ethnic minority groups report higher rates of sexual harassment on the Tube and their harassment is sometimes racialised (that is, the harasser talks about their “exotic” nature). Some resources on the topic include:
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Of course he was wrong. He’s basically saying she should have ignored the democratic wish of the majority. She campaigned for remain, but respected the result, can’t see what is wrong with that unlike all those who tried to overturn it with a so called people’s vote.
Sunak was Chancellor prior to Truss. He was pretty responsible for the legacy too.
His allegation, although not spelled out, was that she campaigned for Remain but secretly voted to leave.
She is of course not the only politician suspected of this.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Of course he was wrong. He’s basically saying she should have ignored the democratic wish of the majority. She campaigned for remain, but respected the result, can’t see what is wrong with that unlike all those who tried to overturn it with a so called people’s vote.
Sunak was Chancellor prior to Truss. He was pretty responsible for the legacy too.
His allegation, although not spelled out, was that she campaigned for Remain but secretly voted to leave.
She is of course not the only politician suspected of this.
His allegation is mere conspiracy theory then from the more absurd parts of Twitter. It will be chemtrails next 😂😂😂😂
They always find white men for adverts about sex pests
Wtf does that mean?
I'm somewhat amused that you either couldn't, or pretended that you couldn't, work this out on your own
Oh come on we know the biggest sex pests on the tube are middle aged white businessmen in a shirt and tie 😉
We do know that women from ethnic minority groups report higher rates of sexual harassment on the Tube and their harassment is sometimes racialised (that is, the harasser talks about their “exotic” nature). Some resources on the topic include:
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
That's not quite true.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
An Ed Miliband original, lest we forget...
Wasn't the (insanely expensive) energy bailout largely driven by Moneysaving Martin Lewis?
(Yes, something needed to be done urgently, especially for people at the bottom of the income scale. But most of us shouldn't have had our energy use subsidised like that. And la Liz had campaigned on not chucking everyone a big pile of cash.)
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
That's not quite true.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
An Ed Miliband original, lest we forget...
Wasn't the (insanely expensive) energy bailout largely driven by Moneysaving Martin Lewis?
(Yes, something needed to be done urgently, especially for people at the bottom of the income scale. But most of us shouldn't have had our energy use subsidised like that. And la Liz had campaigned on not chucking everyone a big pile of cash.)
Yes, it was the ‘people’s chancellor’ who led the lobbying on this.
Team Truss initially did not commit to anything but ended up having to, you’re right too, many of us didn’t need the money we didn’t.
She clearly didn’t want to do this knowing the consequences
"The Metropolitan Police has issued a direct appeal to a migrant sex offender to hand himself in, after he was mistakenly released from a prison in Essex on Friday and travelled to east London."
That'll do it.
Translated....
We are so incomponent that despite all the CCTV that covers London we haven't got a scooby....
Yes I had thought that in today's age of CCTV etc that a manhunt was basically a foregone conclusion in London at least. But if someone (without family to help him) can evade the Met despite being a top priority it makes you wonder...
I thought it was the Tories that were going to privatise the NHS?
One in 10 NHS appointments and operations are now being carried out by the private sector.
Use of the private sector has surged under Labour, with new figures published on Saturday showing more than six million operations, tests and appointments for NHS patients were carried out privately last year – a rise of more than 8 per cent from 2023.
Wonder why.
I am sure the donors to Wes Streeting are not relevant here!!
Only way to deal with the Tory backlog unfortunately. Plus of course many NHS staff are in more need of the financial top-up given their declining wages.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
That's not quite true.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
An Ed Miliband original, lest we forget...
Wasn't the (insanely expensive) energy bailout largely driven by Moneysaving Martin Lewis?
(Yes, something needed to be done urgently, especially for people at the bottom of the income scale. But most of us shouldn't have had our energy use subsidised like that. And la Liz had campaigned on not chucking everyone a big pile of cash.)
Yes, it was the ‘people’s chancellor’ who led the lobbying on this.
Team Truss initially did not commit to anything but ended up having to, you’re right too, many of us didn’t need the money we didn’t.
She clearly didn’t want to do this knowing the consequences
She was prime minister. She could have spent more than 5 minutes designing a better scheme. People ok here warned about the excess generosity at the time. You'd think someone forever banging in about how there's too much govt spending qould have twigged that dropping tens of billions on paying everyones energy bills might have been a bit excessive
"The Metropolitan Police has issued a direct appeal to a migrant sex offender to hand himself in, after he was mistakenly released from a prison in Essex on Friday and travelled to east London."
That'll do it.
Translated....
We are so incomponent that despite all the CCTV that covers London we haven't got a scooby....
Yes I had thought that in today's age of CCTV etc that a manhunt was basically a foregone conclusion in London at least. But if someone (without family to help him) can evade the Met despite being a top priority it makes you wonder...
You’re assuming that the Met actually want to catch him, rather than waiting a couple of days for the media to have moved on to some other story.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Sounds like a very similar position to that between SKS and Lucy Powell.
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
That's not quite true.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
An Ed Miliband original, lest we forget...
Wasn't the (insanely expensive) energy bailout largely driven by Moneysaving Martin Lewis?
(Yes, something needed to be done urgently, especially for people at the bottom of the income scale. But most of us shouldn't have had our energy use subsidised like that. And la Liz had campaigned on not chucking everyone a big pile of cash.)
Yes, it was the ‘people’s chancellor’ who led the lobbying on this.
Team Truss initially did not commit to anything but ended up having to, you’re right too, many of us didn’t need the money we didn’t.
She clearly didn’t want to do this knowing the consequences
She was prime minister. She could have spent more than 5 minutes designing a better scheme. People ok here warned about the excess generosity at the time. You'd think someone forever banging in about how there's too much govt spending qould have twigged that dropping tens of billions on paying everyones energy bills might have been a bit excessive
It does show a certain weakness to be bounced into doing something by excessive lobbying, something the current govt are not immune from either.
It does say a lot though, nationalists are just like nationalists. There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same. The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
I don't necessarily believe that was spray painted by some nationalist. More like a Labour ruffian from Lansbury Park.
I am not very bright so I may be misunderstanding your narrative. If I am unusually reading it appropriately I don't believe your analysis to be correct.
You dont think the Nats in Scotland and the Nats in Wales are the same cloth as Reform? The only difference is experience in governing. They seed the same discontent.
Away and bile your heid you nutcase Little Englander
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Trouble is that, if you want to cut taxes without blowing things up, you really have to identify bits of government spending to cut as well.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
That's not quite true.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
An Ed Miliband original, lest we forget...
Wasn't the (insanely expensive) energy bailout largely driven by Moneysaving Martin Lewis?
(Yes, something needed to be done urgently, especially for people at the bottom of the income scale. But most of us shouldn't have had our energy use subsidised like that. And la Liz had campaigned on not chucking everyone a big pile of cash.)
Yes, it was the ‘people’s chancellor’ who led the lobbying on this.
Team Truss initially did not commit to anything but ended up having to, you’re right too, many of us didn’t need the money we didn’t.
She clearly didn’t want to do this knowing the consequences
She was prime minister. She could have spent more than 5 minutes designing a better scheme. People ok here warned about the excess generosity at the time. You'd think someone forever banging in about how there's too much govt spending qould have twigged that dropping tens of billions on paying everyones energy bills might have been a bit excessive
Or alternatively, she could have waited before cutting taxes.
Cuttings taxes like a demented topiarist while spending money like a drunken sailor when there was already a substantial deficit was only ever likely to end one way.
New Zealand making unexpectedly heavy weather of a straightforward chase.
But anyone who thinks England can win the Ashes needs to take a look at that scorecard.
Qualify this by saying I have not seen the game but it’s NZ conditions vs Australian, ODI vs tests. And one bad game.
Still look at that scorecard. The top seven bears a strong resemblance to the one that will be walking out in Oz. Only one of them made it past 7. Indeed, of the likely starters only one of them made it past 2.
The ones who will be swapped out are Curran for Stokes (if he's fit) Buttler for Crawley (nuff said) and possibly Pope for Bethell. That's not noticeably strengthening the side...
Comments
I do get the sense that there is a lot of arrogance in the legal profession and they could do with brought down a peg or two as the bankers were in 2008. It also draws attention to the fact that the City of London has its own police force. I would like to know why this is deemed to be necessary.
The Daily Mail moaning that it’s an attack on hard work and aspiration is laughable . There are millions of people who work hard and would never be able to afford a home of that value .
Maybe a slight over-correction for the past is no bad thing.
It was rather like an early Reform party political broadcast. I can imagine Lee Anderson playing a modern-day Alf Garnett.
@Phil_Lewis_
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — Trump says he's punishing Canada with 10% extra tariffs for not pulling down anti-tariff ad sooner.
https://x.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1982185934792560946
https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/1982151141715562561
The Pentagon somehow determined that the best supplier available for drone parts just happened to be the one that had one of President's sons on its board -- government-wide graft going on.
https://x.com/MattGertz/status/1981809738011849043
I’ve got straight to work with @Keir_Starmer to discuss how we will work closely together to defeat the forces of division and hate, and to reunite the country.
https://x.com/lucympowell/status/1982166277062898132?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
....Piastri.
The point is that it’s configurable. And changes over the life of the tank.
They were patting themselves on the back about diversity. Then someone suggested broadening the intake by having a “take your neighbours kids to work day”
At that point I actually guffawed. And suggested that a more interesting idea would be a “the cleaner’s and security guard’s children to come to the bank” day.
Oh sure, lots of non-white faces in the bank. But the groups missing are just as interesting.
There’s a meme I think it was around the time of Obama, but it might have been Biden of a bomber dropping missiles with rainbow flags and BLM stickers on them, whilst Republicans was just doing the same.
The notion that Plaid’s nationalism routed in authoritarian left is somehow morally superiors or to that of Reform is preposterous. It’s a mental blindness to think otherwise.
If so, I can recommend some basic economics lessons.
If not, what's your point, beyond some juvenile sarcasm, which is fine, and a dislike of Mrs Thatcher?
Or is it maybe that the left in this country is totally out of ideas about how to get the economy working again? If so, they took about a year to get to where the Conservatives got to in 14.
And of course the small matter of Trump's own deranged behaviour.
The graffiti is just quite funny.
I took it more as a comment on the madness that is a closely fought by-election, where politicans of all stripes suddenly pretend a place they've never been to before is the centre of the universe for three weeks, then disappear as suddenly as they came, never to be seen again.
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/music/article/radiohead-tour-2025-interview-israel-fn0bmdzl8
That'll do it.
The number paying back student loans has fallen from 57,000 to under 45,000 amid a ‘brutal’ jobs market
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/graduate-student-loan-repayment-uk-job-crisis-386q7fx6s
We are so incomponent that despite all the CCTV that covers London we haven't got a scooby....
And sometime even the world music stuff is really good.
In any event BBC Sounds allows you to curate your own listening experience.
An embarrassingly obvious point, but...
This. Is. Illegal.
If anything like the rule of law were in force, Trump couldn't arbitrarily increase a tariff because he is annoyed.
In important and increasing ways, the rule of law in the US no longer exists.
https://x.com/BillKristol/status/1982200057765023767
One in 10 NHS appointments and operations are now being carried out by the private sector.
Use of the private sector has surged under Labour, with new figures published on Saturday showing more than six million operations, tests and appointments for NHS patients were carried out privately last year – a rise of more than 8 per cent from 2023.
The bosses of Britain's biggest supermarkets have warned food prices could rise even further if higher taxes are imposed on the sector.
BBC News - Tax rises could push food prices higher, warn supermarkets
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c620gy43pe4o
I am not very bright so I may be misunderstanding your narrative. If I am unusually reading it appropriately I don't believe your analysis to be correct.
I am sure the donors to Wes Streeting are not relevant here!!
https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/insights-papers/emergent-approaches-combined-arms-manoeuvre-ukraine
[Edit: it's 3:10am according to my wristwatch, which doesn't automatically go back, but 2:10am according to my laptop, which does. PB time matches that according to my view. I don't know what the time says in your location.]
If so, amazing how that's survived more than a year of their dismal self-destructive incompetence.
Those would take out artillery shells.
And a good way of starkly presenting what a bullshit doctrine it has become.
This is actually brilliant. The DC guy arrested for playing Darth Vader music while walking behind the National Guard, he’s suing the individual National Guardsman. These guys are not gonna like having to defend themselves in a never-ending stream of lawsuits. Going to make them think twice about acting like Nazis… or stormtroopers. ..
https://x.com/aravosis/status/1982204101736673572
If it wasn't PB, then the only other 'culprit' was a vaguely Christian site to do with long distance walks.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2_M_Kd_Yjkw
But anyone who thinks England can win the Ashes needs to take a look at that scorecard.
The increases we see in the supermarket are cumulative too given the increases are also handed down to the product manufacturers and producers none of whom are making a fortune either.
F1: I'll start the pre-race ramble soon but may end up delaying it so the markets can finally be put up, assuming they're as lax as they were last time...
The lower courts have found them illegal, the Supreme Court will judge shortly.
Lucy Powell secures an ex-officio seat on the party’s National Executive committee and what she makes of the rest of the role comes down to how much energy and flair she puts into it, and what she is allowed to make of it by a leadership which very obviously preferred Bridget Phillipson. [But] Being projected as the loyalist was not a tonic for her chances, but poison to them.
We know from the campaign [Powell ] fought that she doesn’t think much of the prime minister’s strategy and has no higher opinion of his tactics. One of the more forceful points made in her acceptance speech was that Labour needs to be “bolder” about delivering change and conveying its sense of purpose. Hardcore Starmerites, such as they are, may be tempted to try to marginalise the new deputy. I pick up some cabinet-level snorting that she will be a powerless irrelevance to the big picture. A sneery response is, I think, a mistake and one which can only compound the anxiety in Labour ranks that Number 10 is hunkering down into bunker mode.
The dreadful rout in the Caerphilly byelection has reinforced her message that the party is losing as many votes, if not more, to its left as it is to Reform. Labour people are not wrong to fear that Caerphilly may be the harbinger of evisceration in next May’s elections in England, Scotland and Wales.
Is Sir Keir willing to find a way to live with a woman he unceremoniously sacked? He claims he will be “delighted” to work with her and I’m told the pair had a private conversation after their formal speeches at the results event. She’s indicating that she is willing to bury the hatchet and wants to help the government not destabilise it. He’s been landed with a deputy he didn’t want, but being resentful about that isn’t going to get the prime minister anywhere.
There is peril and opportunity here. The peril is that Number 10 freezes her out, she grows angry and every time she opens her mouth it is gleefully interpreted by the government’s many enemies as an assault on the prime minister. The opportunity is for Labour to deploy her as a punchy advocate of the party’s values and achievements, and the facilitator of a constructively critical conversation about where it is going wrong. She says she wants to “speak truth to power”. Her chances of being heard greatly depend on whether power is willing to listen.
https://x.com/trussliz/status/1982222949542175062?s=61
https://x.com/simonmedhurst/status/1982223819168239773
To be fair though, Sunak was in a position where he didn't have lots of choice in the matter. Taxes had to go up due to a black hole caused by an economic crisis. An avoidable one caused by Truss' idiocy.
Now we could discuss whether he picked the right ones or did it in the right way, but it wasn't his fault he inherited a disaster zone. If he had won the first leadership contest, taxes probably wouldn't have had to go up.
Anyway, pre-race wibble will be up soon.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15225647/barristers-win-right-without-wigs-court-campaigners-culturally-insensitive.html
It is hard to wear wigs with Afro hairstyles. Apparently barristers' wigs originally disguised syphilis-induced hair loss.
Betting PostF1: backed Russell for a podium at 3.25 on Betfair.
https://morrisf1.blogspot.com/2025/10/mexican-grand-prix-2025-pre-race.html
Long run into the first corner so plenty of scope for Hamilton or Russell to benefit from a slipstream or handbrake from Norris or Leclerc. He'll also have priority in pit stops which might prove tricky for one Ferrari, and the Verstappen threat might be less than expected if he keeps sliding and his tyres get ruined.
Pretty sloppy performance all round by England this morning.
And a second drop as well, this time by Luke Wood.
And neither Truss nor Sunak really got beyond the "we'll get back to you on that one, pinky promise" stage.
Truss instead wanted to massively increase government spending through the fuel price cap.
An Ed Miliband original, lest we forget...
Sunak was Chancellor prior to Truss. He was pretty responsible for the legacy too.
https://www.forwarduk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sexual-Harassment-in-London-Public-Spaces_Topline-1.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60f03e068fa8f50c77458285/2021-07-12_Sexual_Harassment_Report_FINAL.pdf
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/86229/html/
She is of course not the only politician suspected of this.
(Yes, something needed to be done urgently, especially for people at the bottom of the income scale. But most of us shouldn't have had our energy use subsidised like that. And la Liz had campaigned on not chucking everyone a big pile of cash.)
Team Truss initially did not commit to anything but ended up having to, you’re right too, many of us didn’t need the money we didn’t.
She clearly didn’t want to do this knowing the consequences
Plus of course many NHS staff are in more need of the financial top-up given their declining wages.
Good morning, everyone.
Cuttings taxes like a demented topiarist while spending money like a drunken sailor when there was already a substantial deficit was only ever likely to end one way.
The ones who will be swapped out are Curran for Stokes (if he's fit) Buttler for Crawley (nuff said) and possibly Pope for Bethell. That's not noticeably strengthening the side...