Who knew people in their 80s might sometimes walk like that? What I can't quite understand is the posters who delighted in updating us on Biden's every misstep seem remarkably quiet over Trump?
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Yes, it's a problem for me too, but it includes those blinding flashing lights on bicycles. They should be illegal, but can't see anything being done about them.
In Germany they have specific rules about bike lights - we could have the same given they are often higher than car lights and some brands are approaching the same brightness - mine are 900 lumen versus 1,500 in my car.
But frankly the risk is much higher for the cyclist in not being seen, so there's no chance they'll try to restrict the lights.
Since 2005, flashing bicycle lights are permitted to be used as sole lights, provided the light flashes between 60 and 240 times per minute (1-4Hz).
I think in Germany it's more about beam direction.
Anyway, there is a live debate about what's safer - flashing lights or constant. The former last 10x longer on battery and in daytime running you definitely want flashing for long distance visibility.
I appreciate they cause some drivers issues but the number of times I've nearly been hit despite lights + high vis + reflectors means I would never advocate for restricting their use. The consequences are fatal if you're not seen and drivers should slow down if they are struggling to see (or get to the optician ASAP).
I try to run at least one flashing and one constant front and rear. Flashing to grab the attention, constant to make it easier to judge distance and speed. It doesn't help with the significant minority of drivers incapable of judging distances and speeds even in broad daylight but it's a start.
I once encountered a cyclist with only a flashing white light *at the back*. I saw him, fair enough, but it took me a while to work out his speed and direction, on an unlit windy country road. Can't imagine what he was thinking. Surely rear lights should be red.
I'm always shocked when I encounter cyclists at night with no lights and wearing dark clothes. Usually kids.
On this year's France cycling trip our sleeper train to Paris from Toulouse got cancelled. The only train we could get got us into Paris at midnight. Although we never planned to cycle at night we had lights just in case, but absolutely never expected to use them at midnight and in Paris. Fortunately we also had tape and attached them to our helmets. As it happened cycling in Paris at night is a damn sight safer than during the day.
The biggest problem with the flashing white light was that the cyclist was also wearing dark clothing. Initially it seemed that the cycle was approaching me on the wrong side of the road. I had to slow right down and wait for my brain to adjust.
Of course cyclists out at night with dark clothing and no lights are too frequent to be worth mentioning. And while I'm quite good at remembering to wear a bright T shirt when running, and taking a torch or head torch, I have realised that as a pedestrian I am not that easily seen, as I tend to go out in jeans and a dark blue fleece.
From my POV, if it made you slow down and take care then that is part of the idea.
One cycling trick - especially in the countryside and in the UK with our narrow roads - at night is to have a headlight that does a passable imitation of a motorcycle. They notice those more readily.
It may have been the first time I had seen a flashing light, of course they are more common now. But I would have seen a flashing red light just as readily and not been confused into thinking something was moving towards me on the wrong side of the road. Vehicles have red lights in the back, not white. And if the cyclist had been wearing hi viz, I would have realised it was a cyclist much more readily.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
That is of course all we spend money on
And purportedly upmarket ready-cooked meals.
And I forgot cash for gold, sending off some trinkets to get the money to then go on a cruise.
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Or older drivers have all had to give up driving at night.
Honestly I suspect why anyone should CARE about the number of black people in ads. If black people want to make as much tits of themselves as white people singing about Tesco Clubcard in a random street, why shouldn't they?
Do you think it would be a problem if 100% of people in adverts 100% of the time were black?
Ads are very well researched these days. Black people are considered fit and sporty so if you want a family to walk round a supermarket and not look plump and overweight that might be a good choice. Hair ads occasionally use orientals because their hair is more shiny. Edinburgh accents are honest so insurance companies might go for that. Liverpudlians are crooks ....cockneys are sharp etc. None of it is prejudice. It's all tested......
Voice overs are another story. There are people who spend a lot of time researching these things. I've seen casting briefs that have run to pages looking for a single person,.........Seeming nonsense like 'Would go skiing to St Moritz but wouldn't say no to a pint in the local pub. Might ride a horse..
........' I've many times asked who thinks up this bullshit?
I think you need to cast Nigel Farage for that one
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Same, it's the reason I've pretty much stopped driving at night and I drive vehicles with normal headlights that can be seen from the moon even before I put them in beam.
The usual question arises, though. Enforcement with no traffic policemen - how?
Clearly making the default safer is better - just like default speed limits in Wales which are delivering excellent results - but a significant % of vehicles are already out there with these already, so the cat is out of the bag.
There’s nothing to enforce. These lights are road legal if OEM fit. They also test them as part of the MOT and will fail a car if it does not meet the criteria.
Change the spec to appease a few complainants by all means but the reality is it is not an overnight fix, there’d be an,out of compliance and validation tests and would be very hard to apply retrospectively.
I worked in vehicle lighting for a few years up in Cannock and in Brum and these lights have to meet strict criteria to be able to be used on the road including the position of the beam.
From your experience, if the UK spec differs markedly from EU spec, will the manufacturers change? Running different specs through the same factory is a recipe for mistakes and costs, so wonder if they will do it.
We’re different anyway due to being RHD v LHD so the spec for UK vehicle lighting, front lighting, will differ anyway due to the position of the beam.
It’s a cost burden for sure, it also means two sets of tools for key parts. It makes RHD cars more expensive to their European counterparts as you recover your fixed costs for additional tooling over fewer cars. It also means multiple BOMs and component numbers. This adds admin and complexity, increases inventory and reduces manufacturing efficency. It’s manageable especially now you have the technology to scan a barcode on the part to match to the BOM before you fit it.
But this is applicable across plenty of other vehicle parts too.
There are three left hand drive countries in the EU.
I hope to see four again, before I die!
With Australia joining? Like they have Eurovision...
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
It's a case of people simply voting in line with their own interests.
I am still baffled why so many privately educated people think Labour is on their side.
I can understand Conservative/LD.
The old Conservatives, yes. Indeed, the "I'm not very political and that's why I'm a Conservative" archetype was an archetype for a reason. Civic duty, paying a bit of my privilege forward, that sort of thing. Rory Stewart was probably the last of them standing. Respect to people still trying to fly the flag for the old ways, but it looks like it's over.
The natural home of such people now is the Lib Dems, with their shared interest in fixing the parish church roof. But Lib Dems barely exist in most of the country, so Labour become the placebo.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, picked a side in the generational fiscal and culture wars, and well-bred people of working age have mostly taken the hint.
The Conservatives did best with upper middle class ABs under Rishi again at the last general election and still beat the LDs, with many of the skilled white working class C2s Boris won going to Farage and Reform.
Now some of the C2s and lower middle class C1s who went for Labour last time having voted for Boris in 2019 have also gone Reform, giving Reform the lead. This latter group are the swing voters the Conservatives need to focus on winning back, AB Remainers who went LD in 2024 will likely stay LD and C2 Leavers who went Reform in 2024 will likely stay Reform
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
It is now US government policy that ICE can arrest you on the basis you look Latino.
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
That is of course all we spend money on
And purportedly upmarket ready-cooked meals.
And I forgot cash for gold, sending off some trinkets to get the money to then go on a cruise.
And dodgy health insurance plans. (My mother signed up to one, and we only found out after her demise. Bastards wouldn't refund the unexpired portion of the subscription, either. Mrs C (who knows about these things) was very interested to see that the magnitude of the payouts for suffering X or Y was inversely proportional to the actual probability of the condition.
I was going to add the leaflets from unfamiliar animal welfare operations with a winsome kitten/puppy on the cover and big lettering saying "Nice puppy, shame about what happens if you don't make a donation pronto". But perhaps that's for all ages.
From looking at the stuff she was sent, and which we checked, I was left with the feeling that old folk are being very deliberately targeted. Not just for the obvious reason, but some firms are aiming for folk of wavering mental sense.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
Those sorts of adverts were banned a few years ago
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Or older drivers have all had to give up driving at night.
Older drivers have (in most cases) the readies to buy a car with LED headlights which (at least for me) immediately solves the issue. If they decide to give up instead then it's on them.
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
Honestly I suspect why anyone should CARE about the number of black people in ads. If black people want to make as much tits of themselves as white people singing about Tesco Clubcard in a random street, why shouldn't they?
Do you think it would be a problem if 100% of people in adverts 100% of the time were black?
Ads are very well researched these days. Black people are considered fit and sporty so if you want a family to walk round a supermarket and not look plump and overweight that might be a good choice. Hair ads occasionally use orientals because their hair is more shiny. Edinburgh accents are honest so insurance companies might go for that. Liverpudlians are crooks ....cockneys are sharp etc. None of it is prejudice. It's all tested......
Voice overs are another story. There are people who spend a lot of time researching these things. I've seen casting briefs that have run to pages looking for a single person,.........Seeming nonsense like 'Would go skiing to St Moritz but wouldn't say no to a pint in the local pub. Might ride a horse..
........' I've many times asked who thinks up this bullshit?
*MIddle class* Edinburgh accents I assume - known as Scottish Received Pronunciation. But I assume neither the Hyacinth Bouquet-analogue variants of Morningsaide (coal comes in sex, or did when I were a bairn), nor demotic Leith gadgies pace Trainspotting.
I have a friend who is making a killing doing audiobooks with her soft Scottish brogue
I see that FOUR more have gone, three in Cornwall * and one more in Kent. That's RefUK about 28 Councillors down since the start of September.
We have Rob Parsonage, who self-defenestrated as group leader, Christine Parsonage, now on sick leave, Anna Thomason-Kenyon (Cornwall), and Brian Black (Kent defenestrato).
Self-defenestration is now a team sport, like formation parachute jumping.
We need to move on to the Red Dwarf theme tune: "Watch them lie, shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice ..." . https://youtu.be/zV0hwZwNQZc?t=50
(Apologies to Taz.)
* Dr Pack is all over this, of course, since the LDs are now the largest party group on Cornwall CC by some distance.
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
It's a case of people simply voting in line with their own interests.
I am still baffled why so many privately educated people think Labour is on their side.
I can understand Conservative/LD.
Big government suits them economically, and culturally left values distinguish them from the Head Count.
Big government doesn’t suit them economically unless they work in the public sector, hence more privately educated voters back the Conservatives and LDs than the national average.
On cultural values yes privately educated voters prefer Labour to Reform as privately educated voters are more likely to be graduates than average
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Yeah, because you're blinding everyone else. The problem is the next generation will have even brighter lights, and you'll be the one getting blinded.
We've seen this with the size of pick-up trucks in the US; the higher you are, the safer you are, so the bonnets (hoods) are now over 5 feet high.
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
Honestly I suspect why anyone should CARE about the number of black people in ads. If black people want to make as much tits of themselves as white people singing about Tesco Clubcard in a random street, why shouldn't they?
Do you think it would be a problem if 100% of people in adverts 100% of the time were black?
Ads are very well researched these days. Black people are considered fit and sporty so if you want a family to walk round a supermarket and not look plump and overweight that might be a good choice. Hair ads occasionally use orientals because their hair is more shiny. Edinburgh accents are honest so insurance companies might go for that. Liverpudlians are crooks ....cockneys are sharp etc. None of it is prejudice. It's all tested......
Voice overs are another story. There are people who spend a lot of time researching these things. I've seen casting briefs that have run to pages looking for a single person,.........Seeming nonsense like 'Would go skiing to St Moritz but wouldn't say no to a pint in the local pub. Might ride a horse..
........' I've many times asked who thinks up this bullshit?
*MIddle class* Edinburgh accents I assume - known as Scottish Received Pronunciation. But I assume neither the Hyacinth Bouquet-analogue variants of Morningsaide (coal comes in sex, or did when I were a bairn), nor demotic Leith gadgies pace Trainspotting.
I have a friend who is making a killing doing audiobooks with her soft Scottish brogue
Strange that a shoe could be noticed and appreciated on an audiobook but every day’s a school day.
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
After the caller claimed the demographics of adverts represented a “demonisation of white people”, the Runcorn and Helsby MP agreed.
Sarah Pochin claimed it 'drove her mad' seeing adverts 'full of black and Asian people'
Responding, the Reform UK MP said: “I think Stuart is absolutely right, it drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people, full of people that are basically anything other than white.”
So, she's agreeing that this represents the "demonisation of white people"!
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
That is of course all we spend money on
And purportedly upmarket ready-cooked meals.
And I forgot cash for gold, sending off some trinkets to get the money to then go on a cruise.
And dodgy health insurance plans. (My mother signed up to one, and we only found out after her demise. Bastards wouldn't refund the unexpired portion of the subscription, either. Mrs C (who knows about these things) was very interested to see that the magnitude of the payouts for suffering X or Y was inversely proportional to the actual probability of the condition.
I was going to add the leaflets from unfamiliar animal welfare operations with a winsome kitten/puppy on the cover and big lettering saying "Nice puppy, shame about what happens if you don't make a donation pronto". But perhaps that's for all ages.
From looking at the stuff she was sent, and which we checked, I was left with the feeling that old folk are being very deliberately targeted. Not just for the obvious reason, but some firms are aiming for folk of wavering mental sense.
My Dad had a Sun Life over 50 plan. Utter waste of money. He assumed, from the ads at the time, it would pay for the funeral as it was implied it was a funeral plan. Didn’t even pay for half.
Just look at the ads for it. How it’s pitched. Even today. I think you’re absolutely right as to the targetting.
He’d have been better putting it in the bank, even with their miserly interest rates.
(For the record: I didn't mind those older ads, and I don't mind the ones I see now. The older ones were complimentary, and so are the newer ones. The older ones suggested that blacks were likely to be good cooks; the newer ones that I see suggest that blacks are in good families. Often, by the way, mixed race families.)
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
After the caller claimed the demographics of adverts represented a “demonisation of white people”, the Runcorn and Helsby MP agreed.
Sarah Pochin claimed it 'drove her mad' seeing adverts 'full of black and Asian people'
Responding, the Reform UK MP said: “I think Stuart is absolutely right, it drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people, full of people that are basically anything other than white.”
So, she's agreeing that this represents the "demonisation of white people"!
Yeah, I can’t excuse that. As I noted to begin with, she’s a nutter.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
(For the record: I didn't mind those older ads, and I don't mind the ones I see now. The older ones were complimentary, and so are the newer ones. The older ones suggested that blacks were likely to be good cooks; the newer ones that I see suggest that blacks are in good families. Often, by the way, mixed race families.)
Wasn’t Aunt Jemima a bit like the, now excised, housemaid in Tom and Jerry who used to shout ‘THOMMMMAS’ whenever the cat made a faux pas and chase him around with a broom.
(For the record: I didn't mind those older ads, and I don't mind the ones I see now. The older ones were complimentary, and so are the newer ones. The older ones suggested that blacks were likely to be good cooks; the newer ones that I see suggest that blacks are in good families. Often, by the way, mixed race families.)
I'm trying to remember which black activist pointed out that the film Bad Boys was a deliberate piece of reverse casting... The lead detectives are black - the family man and the rich boy. The backup detectives are latino. The minor roles and the villains are white.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
It is now US government policy that ICE can arrest you on the basis you look Latino.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Yeah, because you're blinding everyone else. The problem is the next generation will have even brighter lights, and you'll be the one getting blinded.
We've seen this with the size of pick-up trucks in the US; the higher you are, the safer you are, so the bonnets (hoods) are now over 5 feet high.
I'm not blinding the others who have LED headlights. There doesn't have to be an arms race and one can be prevented by legislation; all it needs is everyone on roughly the same standard.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
What's odds are you giving on Farage or Jenrick?
Reform are odds on for most seats. That is just in a single election. Farage is set in stone as their leader as long as he is compos mentis.
To be PM is trickier to price as no overall majority is trading at 55%. Reform have no natural allies bar some of the Tories so despite being largest party may struggle to win a confidence vote - lets say its 20% from the 55% no majority plus the 28% they are trading at for their own majority. That gives 48%, maybe another 5% from a Jenrick led Tory party. 53% less minor actuarial risks gets to a round 50% to be PM after next election. If they dont win that one, think they are similar for the next, so about 70-75% one is in power within a decade.
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
What's odds are you giving on Farage or Jenrick?
Reform are odds on for most seats. That is just in a single election. Farage is set in stone as their leader as long as he is compos mentis.
To be PM is trickier to price as no overall majority is trading at 55%. Reform have no natural allies bar some of the Tories so despite being largest party may struggle to win a confidence vote - lets say its 20% from the 55% no majority plus the 28% they are trading at for their own majority. That gives 48%, maybe another 5% from a Jenrick led Tory party. 53% less minor actuarial risks gets to a round 50% to be PM after next election. If they dont win that one, think they are similar for the next, so about 70-75% one is in power within a decade.
Do you think Farage not being compos mentis would be a barrier to being leader? He'll do the same as Trump, his idol, and hang on to power through cognitive decline!
I see Zarah Sultana has said the quiet part out loud.
Perhaps more detail would be helpful?
Doubled down on her ”we shouldn’t be sending arms to Ukraine because arms manufacture is taking food from the mouths of the poor” position. Oh, and we should pull out of NATO as well, obviously:
To be fair to Grok, the first 2 of those 3 references are explicitly stated to be the official Russia position
When you tell your AI to scour the Internet to research [x], and to avoid lefty liberal sources like CNN and the BBC, then you will find your encyclapedia gives greater weight to State propagandists. (Oh, and to vaccine deniers.)
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Yeah, because you're blinding everyone else. The problem is the next generation will have even brighter lights, and you'll be the one getting blinded.
We've seen this with the size of pick-up trucks in the US; the higher you are, the safer you are, so the bonnets (hoods) are now over 5 feet high.
I'm not blinding the others who have LED headlights. There doesn't have to be an arms race and one can be prevented by legislation; all it needs is everyone on roughly the same standard.
Everyone has to meet the same specification. The issue *may be* the specification needs changing. The review will look at that.
All vehicle lights are checked on the MOT and if they don’t meet the standard they will fail,the car.
I must be the only one on the Internet who sees essentially no adverts.
I pay $20/month to Google for the YouTube family plan, which includes unlimited access to YouTube Music (i.e. their Spotify) and ad free access to YouTube.
If I watch a TV show, it'll be on Netflix or another streaming show where I'm paying not to see adverts.
The only advert I can remember seeing in the last three months is for an auto insurance company, Progressive, who advertises around MLS matches. And where the main character (the only one I remember) is a white middle aged male. Admittedly a highly incompetent accident prone character, but hey.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
What's odds are you giving on Farage or Jenrick?
Reform are odds on for most seats. That is just in a single election. Farage is set in stone as their leader as long as he is compos mentis.
To be PM is trickier to price as no overall majority is trading at 55%. Reform have no natural allies bar some of the Tories so despite being largest party may struggle to win a confidence vote - lets say its 20% from the 55% no majority plus the 28% they are trading at for their own majority. That gives 48%, maybe another 5% from a Jenrick led Tory party. 53% less minor actuarial risks gets to a round 50% to be PM after next election. If they dont win that one, think they are similar for the next, so about 70-75% one is in power within a decade.
Do you think Farage not being compos mentis would be a barrier to being leader? He'll do the same as Trump, his idol, and hang on to power through cognitive decline!
I think the UK electorate are a tad more discerning.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
Don't forget the chairs that tip you out... Love those ones.
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
It's a case of people simply voting in line with their own interests.
I am still baffled why so many privately educated people think Labour is on their side.
I can understand Conservative/LD.
Privately educated folk, being smarter than the average voter, simply realise that the choice on offer right now is appalling and that Labour may be the least worst option.
Could you cite your evidence for PEF's being smarter?
Pochin is obviously a nutter, but she has simply noted that advertising (and broadcast media in general) works very hard to represent metropolitan values.
Per usual in Britain this now dominates the airwaves, while the economy continues to descend into insignificance.
She did not simply note that advertising works hard to represent metropolitan values. She said she was driven mad by seeing black people in adverts.
I don’t think she quite said that, either. It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
Don't forget the chairs that tip you out... Love those ones.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
That is of course all we spend money on
And purportedly upmarket ready-cooked meals.
And I forgot cash for gold, sending off some trinkets to get the money to then go on a cruise.
And dodgy health insurance plans. (My mother signed up to one, and we only found out after her demise. Bastards wouldn't refund the unexpired portion of the subscription, either. Mrs C (who knows about these things) was very interested to see that the magnitude of the payouts for suffering X or Y was inversely proportional to the actual probability of the condition.
I was going to add the leaflets from unfamiliar animal welfare operations with a winsome kitten/puppy on the cover and big lettering saying "Nice puppy, shame about what happens if you don't make a donation pronto". But perhaps that's for all ages.
From looking at the stuff she was sent, and which we checked, I was left with the feeling that old folk are being very deliberately targeted. Not just for the obvious reason, but some firms are aiming for folk of wavering mental sense.
My Dad had a Sun Life over 50 plan. Utter waste of money. He assumed, from the ads at the time, it would pay for the funeral as it was implied it was a funeral plan. Didn’t even pay for half.
Just look at the ads for it. How it’s pitched. Even today. I think you’re absolutely right as to the targetting.
He’d have been better putting it in the bank, even with their miserly interest rates.
Yes. My mother was not incapax - quite the reverse - so it was a bit of a surprise when she fell for the health insurance thing. But that probably indicates how well they are done.
I see Zarah Sultana has said the quiet part out loud.
Perhaps more detail would be helpful?
Doubled down on her ”we shouldn’t be sending arms to Ukraine because arms manufacture is taking food from the mouths of the poor” position. Oh, and we should pull out of NATO as well, obviously:
To be fair to Grok, the first 2 of those 3 references are explicitly stated to be the official Russia position
When you tell your AI to scour the Internet to research [x], and to avoid lefty liberal sources like CNN and the BBC, then you will find your encyclapedia gives greater weight to State propagandists. (Oh, and to vaccine deniers.)
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
I think original research is banned on Wikipedia. You have to cite an external source.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Speaking of mixed race families -- and elections -- I think the second most interesting race in the US this year is between Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell, and challenger Katie Wilson:
Harrell was born in 1958 in Seattle, to an African-American father who worked for Seattle City Light and a Japanese American mother who worked for the Seattle Public Library. As a child during World War II, Harrell's mother was incarcerated with her family at Minidoka internment camp in Idaho.[5] Growing up, Harrell and his family lived in the Central District in Seattle in a minority neighborhood. He attended Garfield High School and played football there as a linebacker, becoming named to the all-Metro team.[6] He captained the football team during his senior season, during which the team played in the 1975 Metro League championship. He was also named the most valuable player of his high school baseball and wrestling teams, and received nine varsity letters.[7] He graduated from Garfield in 1976 as class valedictorian.
Judging by his record, Harrell lives mostly in the real world; judging by what I have learned during the campaign, Wilson does not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Wilson
If Harrell wins, it will be a sign that ordinary Democrats are more willing to tolerate candidates, especially candidates from favored minorities, who live mostly in the real world.
(Unimportant, but it amuses me: Judging by the pictures I've seen, Wilson doesn't apppear to get out often for exercise. )
I must be the only one on the Internet who sees essentially no adverts.
I pay $20/month to Google for the YouTube family plan, which includes unlimited access to YouTube Music (i.e. their Spotify) and ad free access to YouTube.
If I watch a TV show, it'll be on Netflix or another streaming show where I'm paying not to see adverts.
The only advert I can remember seeing in the last three months is for an auto insurance company, Progressive, who advertises around MLS matches. And where the main character (the only one I remember) is a white middle aged male. Admittedly a highly incompetent accident prone character, but hey.
(For the record: I didn't mind those older ads, and I don't mind the ones I see now. The older ones were complimentary, and so are the newer ones. The older ones suggested that blacks were likely to be good cooks; the newer ones that I see suggest that blacks are in good families. Often, by the way, mixed race families.)
I'm trying to remember which black activist pointed out that the film Bad Boys was a deliberate piece of reverse casting... The lead detectives are black - the family man and the rich boy. The backup detectives are latino. The minor roles and the villains are white.
There was a time when Hollywood was reluctant to cast black actors as villains, which was a pity, as the villain is often the juiciest part in a film.
I see Zarah Sultana has said the quiet part out loud.
Perhaps more detail would be helpful?
Doubled down on her ”we shouldn’t be sending arms to Ukraine because arms manufacture is taking food from the mouths of the poor” position. Oh, and we should pull out of NATO as well, obviously:
To be fair to Grok, the first 2 of those 3 references are explicitly stated to be the official Russia position
When you tell your AI to scour the Internet to research [x], and to avoid lefty liberal sources like CNN and the BBC, then you will find your encyclapedia gives greater weight to State propagandists. (Oh, and to vaccine deniers.)
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
I think original research is banned on Wikipedia. You have to cite an external source.
(For the record: I didn't mind those older ads, and I don't mind the ones I see now. The older ones were complimentary, and so are the newer ones. The older ones suggested that blacks were likely to be good cooks; the newer ones that I see suggest that blacks are in good families. Often, by the way, mixed race families.)
I'm trying to remember which black activist pointed out that the film Bad Boys was a deliberate piece of reverse casting... The lead detectives are black - the family man and the rich boy. The backup detectives are latino. The minor roles and the villains are white.
There was a time when Hollywood was reluctant to cast black actors as villains, which was a pity, as the villain is often the juiciest part in a film.
Sidney Poitier once expressed frustration in his career - that he would have loved to play more complex and less perfect characters, but didn't dare to because he was the only African-American being cast in leading roles and he couldn't risk giving the KKK et al any ammunition against non-whites.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They might put you up against the wall as a capitalist running dog, though.
If the next general election looked like being a choice between Reform or the Greens/Your Party I suspect TSE would buy himself an emergency bolt hole in Switzerland, Monaco, the UAE or Singapore.
As would many non white or liberal wealthy high earners
Certainly, in Luton South, where I live, it seems like a choice between Your Party and Reform.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Yeah, because you're blinding everyone else. The problem is the next generation will have even brighter lights, and you'll be the one getting blinded.
We've seen this with the size of pick-up trucks in the US; the higher you are, the safer you are, so the bonnets (hoods) are now over 5 feet high.
I'm not blinding the others who have LED headlights. There doesn't have to be an arms race and one can be prevented by legislation; all it needs is everyone on roughly the same standard.
Everyone has to meet the same specification. The issue *may be* the specification needs changing. The review will look at that.
All vehicle lights are checked on the MOT and if they don’t meet the standard they will fail,the car.
If it's been the same specification forever then it clearly failed to anticipate LEDs (unsurprisingly) but now that they're there's zero point in changing it, the genie is out of the bottle. We just wait for almost all cars to have LEDs as older ones are scrapped.
I see Zarah Sultana has said the quiet part out loud.
Perhaps more detail would be helpful?
Doubled down on her ”we shouldn’t be sending arms to Ukraine because arms manufacture is taking food from the mouths of the poor” position. Oh, and we should pull out of NATO as well, obviously:
To be fair to Grok, the first 2 of those 3 references are explicitly stated to be the official Russia position
When you tell your AI to scour the Internet to research [x], and to avoid lefty liberal sources like CNN and the BBC, then you will find your encyclapedia gives greater weight to State propagandists. (Oh, and to vaccine deniers.)
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
I think original research is banned on Wikipedia. You have to cite an external source.
Because it is supposed to be a dictionary.
I think you mean encyclopedia, but yes, that is correct.
I must be the only one on the Internet who sees essentially no adverts.
I pay $20/month to Google for the YouTube family plan, which includes unlimited access to YouTube Music (i.e. their Spotify) and ad free access to YouTube.
If I watch a TV show, it'll be on Netflix or another streaming show where I'm paying not to see adverts.
The only advert I can remember seeing in the last three months is for an auto insurance company, Progressive, who advertises around MLS matches. And where the main character (the only one I remember) is a white middle aged male. Admittedly a highly incompetent accident prone character, but hey.
Set your VPN to Albania, and you won’t see any adverts on YouTube. Except for the very occasional French one, for some mysterious reason. But you don’t need to pay YouTube or Google to avoid those ads.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
I'm 42 and drive a modern car.
You are incorrect in your imagining.
If you are still having visual issues while having LED lights yourself, have you looked at e.g. Zeiss Drivesafe?
Danny Kruger currently doing a HUGE amount of mansplaining on R4 about what Ms Pochin actually meant.
Care to precis?
Pochin's words were bad, deeply offensive, wrong, but not racist. Tbf Nick Robinson tried to pin 'preparing for government' Dan down to what was so bad about the words if they were not racist, but got a lot of argle, bargle, fargle in return.
I thought Nick Robinson was particularly good today. Not that it was too challenging. Why he didn't just hold up his hands and say 'Ok we've got an iredeemable racist in the Party. What can I do. I'm not the leader'
Whike she could have made her point more tactfully, it is not racist to state the facts, which is what Sarah Pochin did, however you feel about it.
She said, "it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people". That is not merely stating a fact. She was expressing an emotional response to see adverts "full of black people, full of Asian people".
Charitably I'd suggest some hyperbole of language. It irritates her, it doesn't send her into a tantrum worthy of my two year old. There is a point behind it that it can be a bit jarring when every family depicted is a white woman with a black (not Asian) man. I joke with my wife about blacking up, before recalling that you are not meant to to that any more...
The wider point - are Reform a massive bunch of racist cnuts... yes. Hence my visceral reaction to seeing them canvassing in Warminster high street at the weekend. If I hadn't been busy and with my wife and child I would have checked in for a robust conversation.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
I'm 42 and drive a modern car.
You are incorrect in your imagining.
If you are still having visual issues while having LED lights yourself, have you looked at e.g. Zeiss Drivesafe?
Never heard of it. What is it?
Edit - on checking this appears to be something to do with a lens for your glasses. But I don't wear glasses, so it's not likely to be terribly helpful.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
That is of course all we spend money on
And purportedly upmarket ready-cooked meals.
And I forgot cash for gold, sending off some trinkets to get the money to then go on a cruise.
And dodgy health insurance plans. (My mother signed up to one, and we only found out after her demise. Bastards wouldn't refund the unexpired portion of the subscription, either. Mrs C (who knows about these things) was very interested to see that the magnitude of the payouts for suffering X or Y was inversely proportional to the actual probability of the condition.
I was going to add the leaflets from unfamiliar animal welfare operations with a winsome kitten/puppy on the cover and big lettering saying "Nice puppy, shame about what happens if you don't make a donation pronto". But perhaps that's for all ages.
From looking at the stuff she was sent, and which we checked, I was left with the feeling that old folk are being very deliberately targeted. Not just for the obvious reason, but some firms are aiming for folk of wavering mental sense.
My Dad had a Sun Life over 50 plan. Utter waste of money. He assumed, from the ads at the time, it would pay for the funeral as it was implied it was a funeral plan. Didn’t even pay for half.
Just look at the ads for it. How it’s pitched. Even today. I think you’re absolutely right as to the targetting.
He’d have been better putting it in the bank, even with their miserly interest rates.
Yes. My mother was not incapax - quite the reverse - so it was a bit of a surprise when she fell for the health insurance thing. But that probably indicates how well they are done.
Same with my Dad and he was always financially very responsible.
I think you’re right. They’re well done and they known the levers to push.
...and had been suffering from it for some time. IIUC her husband Timothy West stayed with her and cared for her as best he could up to his death, and I thought it spoke well of him. Similarly for Alfred Molina (still alive) and Jill Gascoigne.
I have unusually sensitive eyes and driving at night is becoming a highly unpleasant experience. Not only are many modern headlights far too bright (in some cases clearly illegally bright) but too few people seem to know how to use the dipper.
Ad in the rise in the height of headlights (bigger, taller cars, SUVs etc) and the brighter lights and travelling on A roads at night can be a real pain in the arse. The brightness of even dipped lights can be an issue.
Which is ridiculous because articulated lorry headlights are typically well aimed and don’t blind me in my Polo. Tesla are by far the worst, it’s like looking into the sun.
I imagine that most of those being blinded are driving older cars on halogens. I don't drive one of our cars at night for this reason, it has me swearing constantly as I can't see dick on dipped beam. The Tesla otoh is great, I'm never blinded by oncoming traffic and can see everything. Presumably this is because my eyes are habituated driving it to high power LEDs. From this I conclude that the light issue will sort itself out when everyone is on decent headlights in a decade or so's time.
Yeah, because you're blinding everyone else. The problem is the next generation will have even brighter lights, and you'll be the one getting blinded.
We've seen this with the size of pick-up trucks in the US; the higher you are, the safer you are, so the bonnets (hoods) are now over 5 feet high.
I'm not blinding the others who have LED headlights. There doesn't have to be an arms race and one can be prevented by legislation; all it needs is everyone on roughly the same standard.
Everyone has to meet the same specification. The issue *may be* the specification needs changing. The review will look at that.
All vehicle lights are checked on the MOT and if they don’t meet the standard they will fail,the car.
If it's been the same specification forever then it clearly failed to anticipate LEDs (unsurprisingly) but now that they're there's zero point in changing it, the genie is out of the bottle. We just wait for almost all cars to have LEDs as older ones are scrapped.
But it hasn’t been the same ‘forever’. It is regularly updated and has been updated to account for LED lights. Last updated five years ago.
'A monthly tracker of political preferences by Ipsos, the polling firm, also shows that Andy Burnham, the mayor for Greater Manchester, is favoured over Sir Keir as a better prime minister.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
What's odds are you giving on Farage or Jenrick?
Reform are odds on for most seats. That is just in a single election. Farage is set in stone as their leader as long as he is compos mentis.
To be PM is trickier to price as no overall majority is trading at 55%. Reform have no natural allies bar some of the Tories so despite being largest party may struggle to win a confidence vote - lets say its 20% from the 55% no majority plus the 28% they are trading at for their own majority. That gives 48%, maybe another 5% from a Jenrick led Tory party. 53% less minor actuarial risks gets to a round 50% to be PM after next election. If they dont win that one, think they are similar for the next, so about 70-75% one is in power within a decade.
Do you think Farage not being compos mentis would be a barrier to being leader? He'll do the same as Trump, his idol, and hang on to power through cognitive decline!
I think the UK electorate are a tad more discerning.
They’re self interested by and large. They will vote for whoever they think will look after them the best.
I must be the only one on the Internet who sees essentially no adverts.
I pay $20/month to Google for the YouTube family plan, which includes unlimited access to YouTube Music (i.e. their Spotify) and ad free access to YouTube.
If I watch a TV show, it'll be on Netflix or another streaming show where I'm paying not to see adverts.
The only advert I can remember seeing in the last three months is for an auto insurance company, Progressive, who advertises around MLS matches. And where the main character (the only one I remember) is a white middle aged male. Admittedly a highly incompetent accident prone character, but hey.
Set your VPN to Albania, and you won’t see any adverts on YouTube. Except for the very occasional French one, for some mysterious reason. But you don’t need to pay YouTube or Google to avoid those ads.
Sure: but then we wouldn't get family access to YouTube Music, wouldn't be allowed to legally download YouTube videos for offline viewing, and would also need to have a VPN account (and install it on a dozen devices, slowing their internet access down). Plus, my latency would be rubbish.
(I do actually have a VPN account bundled with various other things from Proton. I think use my Unifi router to send certain... traffic... particularly in the UK via the VPN tunnel.)
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
Don't forget the chairs that tip you out... Love those ones.
Ooh, and Craftmatic Adjustable beds.
And the baths with a door in them.
Who knew it was the habit of ladies "d'une certaine age" to take their baths in a swimming costume.
The big question of One Foot in the Grave: are Victor and Margaret meant to be Scottish? (My interpretation is that they’re Scots who’ve spent their whole adult life down south)
I see Zarah Sultana has said the quiet part out loud.
Perhaps more detail would be helpful?
Doubled down on her ”we shouldn’t be sending arms to Ukraine because arms manufacture is taking food from the mouths of the poor” position. Oh, and we should pull out of NATO as well, obviously:
To be fair to Grok, the first 2 of those 3 references are explicitly stated to be the official Russia position
When you tell your AI to scour the Internet to research [x], and to avoid lefty liberal sources like CNN and the BBC, then you will find your encyclapedia gives greater weight to State propagandists. (Oh, and to vaccine deniers.)
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
I thought an Encyclopaedia was "no new research" by definition.
"No original research" is one of the founding principles of Wikipedia, for example.
This is the lead story in today's Washington Post:
Hurricane Melissa is closing in on Jamaica. Early Tuesday, as the weather deteriorated across Jamaica, the storm’s peak intensity surpassed that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
As of midmorning, the storm was still intensifying just miles from Jamaica. The National Hurricane Center put out a special update, stating that Melissa’s maximum winds had reached 180 mph. That’s just 10 mph shy of the Atlantic record for that metric.
The hurricane offers a chance for savvy politicians to do the right things -- and to make political gains. Both the American president and the UK PM can -- and should -- find some competent officials to coordinate and deliver the aid Jamaica will desperately need.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
Don't forget the chairs that tip you out... Love those ones.
Ooh, and Craftmatic Adjustable beds.
And the baths with a door in them.
Who knew it was the habit of ladies "d'une certaine age" to take their baths in a swimming costume.
I am never ever going to trust a bath with a door in it.
I see Zarah Sultana has said the quiet part out loud.
Perhaps more detail would be helpful?
Doubled down on her ”we shouldn’t be sending arms to Ukraine because arms manufacture is taking food from the mouths of the poor” position. Oh, and we should pull out of NATO as well, obviously:
To be fair to Grok, the first 2 of those 3 references are explicitly stated to be the official Russia position
When you tell your AI to scour the Internet to research [x], and to avoid lefty liberal sources like CNN and the BBC, then you will find your encyclapedia gives greater weight to State propagandists. (Oh, and to vaccine deniers.)
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
I think original research is banned on Wikipedia. You have to cite an external source.
IIRC, primary sources and self-published sources are deprecated on Wikipedia. You have to use secondary or tertiary sources.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
Don't forget the chairs that tip you out... Love those ones.
Ooh, and Craftmatic Adjustable beds.
And the baths with a door in them.
Who knew it was the habit of ladies "d'une certaine age" to take their baths in a swimming costume.
I am never ever going to trust a bath with a door in it.
The big question of One Foot in the Grave: are Victor and Margaret meant to be Scottish? (My interpretation is that they’re Scots who’ve spent their whole adult life down south)
The big question of One Foot in the Grave: are Victor and Margaret meant to be Scottish? (My interpretation is that they’re Scots who’ve spent their whole adult life down south)
I think the actor playing Victor is Scottish ands that comes across in his accent. I don't think there was ever much about their past, other than clearly some trauma about children (either a lost child or not able to have them). But thats it.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
You remind me about a sci-fi book read long ago (perhaps Robert Heinlein?) dealing with the exploits of a space family. Youngest children were twin boys. In the scene I'm recalling, after a brush with Dad, one says to the other, "Hey, you ever noticed how Dad gets pushed around and pushed around until he gets his own way?"
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
Corbyn came close in GE2017, and we never know what the future holds.
The big question of One Foot in the Grave: are Victor and Margaret meant to be Scottish? (My interpretation is that they’re Scots who’ve spent their whole adult life down south)
I think the actor playing Victor is Scottish ands that comes across in his accent. I don't think there was ever much about their past, other than clearly some trauma about children (either a lost child or not able to have them). But thats it.
Called Duncan.
Annette Crosbie is a Scot too.
He was called Victor as he was anything but in life 😂
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
My dad and his wife tend to only watch channels showing repeats of old shows (which probably don't do well selling ad time since they repeat way too often) and there's clearly a slight but important demographic shift between the channels.
As one tends to show ads for walk in baths, health plans etc, whilst the other has ads about making will donations and planning your funeral.
The split between 'old people watch this' vs 'these people are about to die!' Is stark and rather puts them off.
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
It's a case of people simply voting in line with their own interests.
I am still baffled why so many privately educated people think Labour is on their side.
I can understand Conservative/LD.
The old Conservatives, yes. Indeed, the "I'm not very political and that's why I'm a Conservative" archetype was an archetype for a reason. Civic duty, paying a bit of my privilege forward, that sort of thing. Rory Stewart was probably the last of them standing. Respect to people still trying to fly the flag for the old ways, but it looks like it's over.
The natural home of such people now is the Lib Dems, with their shared interest in fixing the parish church roof. But Lib Dems barely exist in most of the country, so Labour become the placebo.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, picked a side in the generational fiscal and culture wars, and well-bred people of working age have mostly taken the hint.
Rory Stewart is the Conservative non-Conservatives love.
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
It's a case of people simply voting in line with their own interests.
I am still baffled why so many privately educated people think Labour is on their side.
I can understand Conservative/LD.
Privately educated folk, being smarter than the average voter, simply realise that the choice on offer right now is appalling and that Labour may be the least worst option.
That's a bit of confirmation bias though, and I don't think it explains what's really going on.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
Corbyn came close in GE2017, and we never know what the future holds.
Is this the same CR as the one who said "I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close. So would most of the country." earlier today? He was correct in thinking the country won't go for Corbyn.
The hurricane offers a chance for savvy politicians to do the right things -- and to make political gains. Both the American president and the UK PM can -- and should -- find some competent officials to coordinate and deliver the aid Jamaica will desperately need.
Immediately.
The latest official NHC forecast says "hide under a mattress and wear a helmet". That is .... not good.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
Then most of the country are wrong, as are you.
I don't think so. Plenty of people on here (many reading this now, and even posting) would handwring about it publicly, and then still vote for them in the voting booth.
Farage is a pub bore and a bit of an ass, but I'd far rather him in power than Corbyn/Foot.
My concern with him isn't his shtick, it's that I don't think he could manage a team or do the job and his economics are fantasy land.
The same cultural impulse that delivers massively disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities on our screens also ensures that fathers are invariably portrayed as hapless idiots.
As I posted a few days ago, it is probably harmless and you’d sound like a nutter if you were to bang on about it, but it’s a thing and we shouldn’t demonise people who merely point it out.
The only time you see oldies are on ads for cruises, sun life over 50 plans and funeral/cremation plans.
Don't forget the chairs that tip you out... Love those ones.
Ooh, and Craftmatic Adjustable beds.
And the baths with a door in them.
Who knew it was the habit of ladies "d'une certaine age" to take their baths in a swimming costume.
I am never ever going to trust a bath with a door in it.
Quite. Look at how many German submarines survived WW2 - they were just accidents waiting to happen with doors that open under water...
This is the lead story in today's Washington Post: Hurricane Melissa is closing in on Jamaica. Early Tuesday, as the weather deteriorated across Jamaica, the storm’s peak intensity surpassed that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
As of midmorning, the storm was still intensifying just miles from Jamaica. The National Hurricane Center put out a special update, stating that Melissa’s maximum winds had reached 180 mph. That’s just 10 mph shy of the Atlantic record for that metric. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/10/28/hurricane-melissa-jamaica-damage/
As it should be.
The hurricane offers a chance for savvy politicians to do the right things -- and to make political gains. Both the American president and the UK PM can -- and should -- find some competent officials to coordinate and deliver the aid Jamaica will desperately need.
Immediately.
Trump always does the right thing.
Well, the far right thing.
(PS, a tip - never use block quotes within posts - use bold or italics as it fouls up quoting otherwise.)
It amazes me that people make this argument. It has always seemed to me like they think they’re making a really clever point while missing the blindingly obvious.
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
It’s one of those arguments that people make to feel good about themselves.
In big urban areas, the British-born population skews towards the very rich, public sector professionals, people working in media, university workers, students. These are all groups that Reform underperforms with - regardless of the number of immigrants.
Reform’s voters skew towards working and lower middle class, the retired, and private sector workers, regardless of the number of immigrants.
London and core cities, like their equivalents across the West, are simply a lot more left wing than their hinterlands are.
I've never seen a fully convincing narrative as to why, though. The upper middle class (outside a very narrow intelligensia) used to be anything but.
It's one of the most fascinating political developments of the last 30 years.
The most interesting poll I saw recently was one that showed that the only section of the population that Labour has a clear lead among, is the privately-educated.
I think many would change their tune, if they actually got a radically redistributionist left wing government.
Reform led amongst comprehensive and academy educated voters though with Labour second. Reform also led with grammar school educated voters with the Conservatives a close second.
Amongst the privately educated as you say Labour led Reform with the Conservatives and LDs doing better than the national average and Reform worse
It's a case of people simply voting in line with their own interests.
I am still baffled why so many privately educated people think Labour is on their side.
I can understand Conservative/LD.
The old Conservatives, yes. Indeed, the "I'm not very political and that's why I'm a Conservative" archetype was an archetype for a reason. Civic duty, paying a bit of my privilege forward, that sort of thing. Rory Stewart was probably the last of them standing. Respect to people still trying to fly the flag for the old ways, but it looks like it's over.
The natural home of such people now is the Lib Dems, with their shared interest in fixing the parish church roof. But Lib Dems barely exist in most of the country, so Labour become the placebo.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, picked a side in the generational fiscal and culture wars, and well-bred people of working age have mostly taken the hint.
Rory Stewart is the Conservative non-Conservatives love.
He is an ex Conservative but rare in that he is also a conservative. Modern Conservatives seem to hate the establishment which they are supposed to be conserving. No wonder their support has splintered off to the more coherent Reform.
Labour and the Tories now tied and only just ahead of the Greens and LDs shows that both the main parties are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves. Labour are losing votes to their left to the Greens and to the centre to the LDs and the Tories have already lost the right to Reform and under Kemi are losing centrist voters to the LDs as well.
Reform ahead clearly but only on 27% so still very vulnerable to anti Farage tactical voting
It's a fascinating time to be involved in politics! There is a very simple message from the electorate - they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The party who can offer the most convincing fix for the mess will win.
You don't think the winner will be the Party offering the most attractive illusion?
I think there are two more cycles: Reform and then radical left (Green or Sultana) And then we may consider facing up to our problems. But we are not at rock bottom yet.
Radical Left would be apocalyptic.
No-one would come out with any private assets intact out the other side, and it'd take us decades to recover, and many of us never would.
Interesting question? Would we prefer a Corbyn/Foot type government or Farage/Trump type of Government?
I appreciate it sounds like a choice of which foot would you like to shoot, but if I had to choose I would go for Corbyn/Foot because although they might be worse at running the economy (maybe?) they aren't obviously destroying the democracy. Further left and of course that is also a possibilty
I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close.
So would most of the country.
I’d vote for the hard left on the basis they are less likely to deport me.
They would see your wealth and class, not your race.
FWIW, the Trump/Farage stuff is hugely overblown on deportation.
Maybe very few will be deported, but millions will fear deportation and feel insecure and unwelcome.
As Jews would under Your Party.
It is the job of politicians to set the tone, and for others to sensibly engage with the issues they raise. I think there are points to be made on returning those who've taken the biscuit, radically reforming international treaties, and challenging the absurd metropolitanism that sets the tone of acceptable discourse in Britain.
But, I think Jenrick and Pochin have put their foot across the line recently. You have to be very careful how you do it.
For balance, I think the chorus of shouts of 'racist' the other way has been childish too.
Your Party are never going to gain power. Farage or Jenrick will. That is the difference.
Corbyn came close in GE2017, and we never know what the future holds.
Is this the same CR as the one who said "I'd go for Farage/Trump every time, and it's not even close. So would most of the country." earlier today? He was correct in thinking the country won't go for Corbyn.
So I did, but if Corbyn had secured just 15 more seats he'd have been PM, not Theresa May.
The big question of One Foot in the Grave: are Victor and Margaret meant to be Scottish? (My interpretation is that they’re Scots who’ve spent their whole adult life down south)
I think the actor playing Victor is Scottish ands that comes across in his accent. I don't think there was ever much about their past, other than clearly some trauma about children (either a lost child or not able to have them). But thats it.
Called Duncan.
Annette Crosbie is a Scot too.
He was called Victor as he was anything but in life 😂
My favourite role of his will always be Eddie Clockerty in Tutti Frutti.
Comments
Now some of the C2s and lower middle class C1s who went for Labour last time having voted for Boris in 2019 have also gone Reform, giving Reform the lead. This latter group are the swing voters the Conservatives need to focus on winning back, AB Remainers who went LD in 2024 will likely stay LD and C2 Leavers who went Reform in 2024 will likely stay Reform
I was going to add the leaflets from unfamiliar animal welfare operations with a winsome kitten/puppy on the cover and big lettering saying "Nice puppy, shame about what happens if you don't make a donation pronto". But perhaps that's for all ages.
From looking at the stuff she was sent, and which we checked, I was left with the feeling that old folk are being very deliberately targeted. Not just for the obvious reason, but some firms are aiming for folk of wavering mental sense.
It’s the disproportionality that is “driving her mad”.
I wonder what she’d think of this attempt by the US Department of Labor to remedy the issue.
https://x.com/mollyploofkins/status/1982622567757402379?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg
We have Rob Parsonage, who self-defenestrated as group leader, Christine Parsonage, now on sick leave, Anna Thomason-Kenyon (Cornwall), and Brian Black (Kent defenestrato).
Self-defenestration is now a team sport, like formation parachute jumping.
We need to move on to the Red Dwarf theme tune: "Watch them lie, shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice ..." .
https://youtu.be/zV0hwZwNQZc?t=50
(Apologies to Taz.)
* Dr Pack is all over this, of course, since the LDs are now the largest party group on Cornwall CC by some distance.
On cultural values yes privately educated voters prefer Labour to Reform as privately educated voters are more likely to be graduates than average
(We play old 90s sitcoms to my kids).
I could merely respond that it’s Scottish, though of what precise type I’m not clear.
We've seen this with the size of pick-up trucks in the US; the higher you are, the safer you are, so the bonnets (hoods) are now over 5 feet high.
Pressure has actually dropped to 892mb, just shy of the absolute record. Wind has increased to 180mph.
Western Jamaica will be pretty much wiped out.
Luckily Kingston will be spared the absolute worst, so assume any media reports from there aren't telling you the whole story.
After the caller claimed the demographics of adverts represented a “demonisation of white people”, the Runcorn and Helsby MP agreed.
Sarah Pochin claimed it 'drove her mad' seeing adverts 'full of black and Asian people'
Responding, the Reform UK MP said: “I think Stuart is absolutely right, it drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people, full of people that are basically anything other than white.”
So, she's agreeing that this represents the "demonisation of white people"!
Just look at the ads for it. How it’s pitched. Even today. I think you’re absolutely right as to the targetting.
He’d have been better putting it in the bank, even with their miserly interest rates.
I don’t believe it.
Examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben's_Original
(For the record: I didn't mind those older ads, and I don't mind the ones I see now. The older ones were complimentary, and so are the newer ones. The older ones suggested that blacks were likely to be good cooks; the newer ones that I see suggest that blacks are in good families. Often, by the way, mixed race families.)
As I noted to begin with, she’s a nutter.
To be PM is trickier to price as no overall majority is trading at 55%. Reform have no natural allies bar some of the Tories so despite being largest party may struggle to win a confidence vote - lets say its 20% from the 55% no majority plus the 28% they are trading at for their own majority. That gives 48%, maybe another 5% from a Jenrick led Tory party. 53% less minor actuarial risks gets to a round 50% to be PM after next election. If they dont win that one, think they are similar for the next, so about 70-75% one is in power within a decade.
Because that's the fundamental flaw with Grokipedia: it's not doing new research and uncovering truth; it's copying down what it finds on the Internet, after it excludes sources that Elon finds inconvenient. That isn't truth seeking, it's comfort blanket seeking.
All vehicle lights are checked on the MOT and if they don’t meet the standard they will fail,the car.
I pay $20/month to Google for the YouTube family plan, which includes unlimited access to YouTube Music (i.e. their Spotify) and ad free access to YouTube.
If I watch a TV show, it'll be on Netflix or another streaming show where I'm paying not to see adverts.
The only advert I can remember seeing in the last three months is for an auto insurance company, Progressive, who advertises around MLS matches. And where the main character (the only one I remember) is a white middle aged male. Admittedly a highly incompetent accident prone character, but hey.
You are incorrect in your imagining.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Wilson
If Harrell wins, it will be a sign that ordinary Democrats are more willing to tolerate candidates, especially candidates from favored minorities, who live mostly in the real world.
(Unimportant, but it amuses me: Judging by the pictures I've seen, Wilson doesn't apppear to get out often for exercise. )
Reform UK leader would be better at leading country, according to exclusive poll
Gordon Rayner
Associate Editor"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/28/voters-prefer-nigel-farage-keir-starmer
The wider point - are Reform a massive bunch of racist cnuts... yes. Hence my visceral reaction to seeing them canvassing in Warminster high street at the weekend. If I hadn't been busy and with my wife and child I would have checked in for a robust conversation.
https://youtube.com/shorts/E0QGS0AMQB8?si=8Ju4QKw-UxW0uhvB
Edit - on checking this appears to be something to do with a lens for your glasses. But I don't wear glasses, so it's not likely to be terribly helpful.
I think you’re right. They’re well done and they known the levers to push.
Labour are losing to the left and the right, conservatives to the right, and even Lib Dems may be losing to the left
As @TSE commented the horseshoe of politics with extremes in the ascendancy
It does pose the question could Labour sink to 4th or 5th and could Reform and conservatives come together which would put the cat amongst the pigeons
Or do Labour and Conservatives manage to capture the centre ground
Politics is febrile, unpredictable, and for many quite alarming
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, appears to be enjoying a post-conference bump with voters choosing the Tories over Labour when asked which party they prefer.'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/28/voters-prefer-nigel-farage-keir-starmer/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/ce3kj1z0egyo
(I do actually have a VPN account bundled with various other things from Proton. I think use my Unifi router to send certain... traffic... particularly in the UK via the VPN tunnel.)
Who knew it was the habit of ladies "d'une certaine age" to take their baths in a swimming costume.
@hellothisisivan
The big question of One Foot in the Grave: are Victor and Margaret meant to be Scottish? (My interpretation is that they’re Scots who’ve spent their whole adult life down south)
https://x.com/hellothisisivan/status/1982866462210441629
"No original research" is one of the founding principles of Wikipedia, for example.
I think Hari Seldon said the same.
As it should be.
The hurricane offers a chance for savvy politicians to do the right things -- and to make political gains. Both the American president and the UK PM can -- and should -- find some competent officials to coordinate and deliver the aid Jamaica will desperately need.
Immediately.
Annette Crosbie is a Scot too.
He was called Victor as he was anything but in life 😂
As one tends to show ads for walk in baths, health plans etc, whilst the other has ads about making will donations and planning your funeral.
The split between 'old people watch this' vs 'these people are about to die!' Is stark and rather puts them off.
Farage is a pub bore and a bit of an ass, but I'd far rather him in power than Corbyn/Foot.
My concern with him isn't his shtick, it's that I don't think he could manage a team or do the job and his economics are fantasy land.
Well, the far right thing.
(PS, a tip - never use block quotes within posts - use bold or italics as it fouls up quoting otherwise.)
TL:DR enough people may vote tactically to keep Reform out in 2029.
I wouldn't have beleeeved it before Caerphilly, but afterwards I have to concede it is at least possible.
And he did get 40%+ of the vote too.