The IRA killed around 110-130 people of the UK mainland between 1972-1997, depending on exactly what is counted. That includes assassinations and the big bomb attacks.
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
'I thought that was a basic' is code here for 'I have zero evidence to back my claim up'.
And I would enjoy an explanation as to how reducing water usage is going to result in less flooding.
Efforts to get everyone to take shorter showers etc., as well as being revolting, are absurdly unnecessary in a country with water so abundant that we are discussing flood mitigation strategies. It is a sign of how absurd and perverse the discourse on this has become that it is even raised.
If you don’t have the reservoirs to store the water for when you need it then you can have both flooding and water shortages follow quickly one after the other.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
'I thought that was a basic' is code here for 'I have zero evidence to back my claim up'.
And I would enjoy an explanation as to how reducing water usage is going to result in less flooding.
Efforts to get everyone to take shorter showers etc., as well as being revolting, are absurdly unnecessary in a country with water so abundant that we are discussing flood mitigation strategies. It is a sign of how absurd and perverse the discourse on this has become that it is even raised.
If you don’t have the reservoirs to store the water for when you need it then you can have both flooding and water shortages follow quickly one after the other.
Why is it that despite so much activity, legislation to ban knives, so much investment in mental health, we’re seeing more violence on our streets. What is causing this? Lots of people will be speculating - I think we should wait until more facts emerge. But there’s clearly something going wrong in our society right now, which I believe all politicians of all parties need to have a conversation about.
It would be helpful if context was added to this complaint about knife crime. What are the rates of knife crime like in other western democracies adjusted to best make it like for like comparisons as to what constitutes knife crime.
On the World Service this morning the correspondent was saying to the host and his guests that there were over 50,000 knife crimes in England and Wales last year to which one of the guests, an American who was the NYT Spain correspondent, was aghast and said that he was from Sam a Francisco so this was just unfathomable for him.
The thing is, every stat I’ve ever seen shows that knife attacks and injuries/death are infinitely higher in the US per head of population and the Americans love throwing our “knife crime” issue at us if we bring up their guns problem. Not only do they have a seriously worse gun crime problem but a worse knife problem to boot.
So is our knife problem especially huge compared to peers? Are we including too many incidents under the same grouping or just right or not enough.
Is there a figure which is actually “natural”, as in, in any population it is inevitable that nutters, miscreants, crims use an weapon which is very easily available to harm, threaten, defend and frankly it doesn’t matter what rules short of banning knifes from life and raiding every home until they are all gone so we can never eradicate it and might get overly worked up about something that can’t be fixed?
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
In case any user is wondering why there were no deaths in Wales or Scotland, this was because of a deliberate policy on behalf of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) not to engage in attacks in those two countries.
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
how many were in England, Scotland,Wales
Dunno Malc, sorry
ISTR rather few attacks fatal or otherwise if any in Scotland, from either side - PIRA not wishing to piss off any local supporters/lose base facilities on the mainland.
Not wishing to dismiss any deaths, but I jusat can't recall any at this distance.
I could only remember the Scottish United Services Museum bomb that went off in Edinburgh Castle during a Tattoo performance but that wasn't Irish apparently.
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
how many were in England, Scotland,Wales
Dunno Malc, sorry
ISTR rather few attacks fatal or otherwise if any in Scotland, from either side - PIRA not wishing to piss off any local supporters/lose base facilities on the mainland.
Not wishing to dismiss any deaths, but I jusat can't recall any at this distance.
I could only remember the Scottish United Services Museum bomb that went off in Edinburgh Castle during a Tattoo performance but that wasn't Irish apparently.
OTOH three of the first British Army soldiers the IRA killed in NI were from Scotland, and quite brutally.
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
The Wild West beyond the Pentlands, where the cowboys roam under the Bathgate Mesas ...
Why is it that despite so much activity, legislation to ban knives, so much investment in mental health, we’re seeing more violence on our streets. What is causing this? Lots of people will be speculating - I think we should wait until more facts emerge. But there’s clearly something going wrong in our society right now, which I believe all politicians of all parties need to have a conversation about.
I suspect nihilism from people with increasingly shit lives with nothing positive to look forward to. Something that politicians could try to do something about.
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
how many were in England, Scotland,Wales
Dunno Malc, sorry
ISTR rather few attacks fatal or otherwise if any in Scotland, from either side - PIRA not wishing to piss off any local supporters/lose base facilities on the mainland.
Not wishing to dismiss any deaths, but I jusat can't recall any at this distance.
I could only remember the Scottish United Services Museum bomb that went off in Edinburgh Castle during a Tattoo performance but that wasn't Irish apparently.
OTOH three of the first British Army soldiers the IRA killed in NI were from Scotland, and quite brutally.
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
how many were in England, Scotland,Wales
Dunno Malc, sorry
ISTR rather few attacks fatal or otherwise if any in Scotland, from either side - PIRA not wishing to piss off any local supporters/lose base facilities on the mainland.
Not wishing to dismiss any deaths, but I jusat can't recall any at this distance.
I could only remember the Scottish United Services Museum bomb that went off in Edinburgh Castle during a Tattoo performance but that wasn't Irish apparently.
OTOH three of the first British Army soldiers the IRA killed in NI were from Scotland, and quite brutally.
Why is it that despite so much activity, legislation to ban knives, so much investment in mental health, we’re seeing more violence on our streets. What is causing this? Lots of people will be speculating - I think we should wait until more facts emerge. But there’s clearly something going wrong in our society right now, which I believe all politicians of all parties need to have a conversation about.
I suspect nihilism from people with increasingly shit lives with nothing positive to look forward to. Something that politicians could try to do something about.
Let's get back to personal responsibility, not blaming other people for your problems.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
If we know they’re not going to be imprisoned if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do? If we know they’re going to executed on sight if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do?
Surely how we deal with illegal immigrants who are also criminals is driven by what is the best outcome for us - i.e. them not being here and not costing us money - rather than for them?
Is it good for the victims (who are among us) if someone evades punishment? Is saving money more important that justice being seen to be done?
I thought your qualm was about them facing execution at home? That's a punishment, surely?
Don’t worry people, Marjorie Taylor-Greene has resumed normal service.
“ Republican US House member Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she believes in demons, surmising that they might be aliens who fell from heaven, and claims to have been unaware that key figures in the antisemitic space lasers conspiracy she floated were Jewish.”
For many Maga from the charismatic-fundamentalist wing that will just be speaking the quiet part out loud.
When you go for really narrow focus Bible literalism plus "God specifically intervening in my life now" type immediacy it can be difficult to avoid such conclusions without questioning your silo.
At the trivial end you might get "God saves me a parking space every time I go into Central London" type stuff (yes I have seen reports of it). At the more seriously loopy (imo) end you may get a demonology of "Satan's strongholds" and people "prayer-walking" around say red light areas. prisons or abortion clinics *, then moving on to "rebuking" and "exorcising" the "demons", and perhaps "prophesying against them". A very prominent writer called C Peter Wagner had some input into that, and then individuals and movements particularise it. He was one of the originators of the New Apostolic Reformation Movement, and explicitly the so-called "Seven Mountains Mandate".
The pattern tends to be that people either become (imo) more sane and integrated or more loopy and siloed, but they develop. CPW started off as a "Professor of Church Growth", and over 2 or 3 decades went into "spiritual warfare" aspects rather than the applied sociology aspects.
* It's important to note that there are other entirely sane versions of prayer walking, which would be more like a reflective walk around an entire area or parish, seeking to quietly note and identify "needs" that a church should address as part of their social or mission programme. That might be combined with a residents' survey. Such observation is a standard mission / social action tool. This would also be a tool to engage the church members in the local community because doing such a survey would also be self-education.
An example might be noticing an isolated housing area from where it is difficult to get to church due to there being no Sunday buses, so a lift rota is provided and a local house group is developed (or a safe footpath is campaigned for so that walking is easier).
Plod say 2 British black males been arrested on suspicion of murder, but nothing to suggest this was a terrorist incident. They are a 32-year-old male black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
I despair of this ‘not terror related’ stuff. It’s a mass stabbing. If it’s not terror related what is it?
Whether it gets labelled terrorism or not, at some point they'll have to say whether this was an on-board incident that escalated or whether this was a premeditated attack.
The BBC aren't saying that... they say British Nationals....
The IRA killed around 110-130 people of the UK mainland between 1972-1997, depending on exactly what is counted. That includes assassinations and the big bomb attacks.
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
Whenever bad things happen, the correct response is not to do things that affect the great majority of people. But it's always much easier for governments to go down that route.
The IRA killed around 110-130 people of the UK mainland between 1972-1997, depending on exactly what is counted. That includes assassinations and the big bomb attacks.
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
Whenever bad things happen, the correct response is not to do things that affect the great majority of people. But it's always much easier for governments to go down that route.
Airport security after 9/11 being the most obvious example of such from governments.
I am a Conservative member one of only about 7,000 in Scotland ! You could fit the whole party in Firhill with room to spare.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
I am a Conservative member one of only about 7,000 in Scotland ! You could fit the whole party in Firhill with room to spare.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
Once the Tories get to a low enough level of polling, such as 5-6%, things like the triple-lock cease to matter as they've got so few votes to lose anyway they may as well do what's right.
Pledging to keep it, just to stay up at 17-18% with the votes of some long loyal pensioners, doesn't seem like a platform to build on for me.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
If we know they’re not going to be imprisoned if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do? If we know they’re going to executed on sight if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do?
Surely how we deal with illegal immigrants who are also criminals is driven by what is the best outcome for us - i.e. them not being here and not costing us money - rather than for them?
Is it good for the victims (who are among us) if someone evades punishment? Is saving money more important that justice being seen to be done?
I thought your qualm was about them facing execution at home? That's a punishment, surely?
Complaining about the legal system and punishments in other countries is Extreme Colonialist White Saviour Aggressive Racism.
Another thought: while the very depressing debate in these circumstances tends to focus on immigration, perhaps what I feel most strongly is that there is a growing sense of unease around public safety. Let’s leave aside ideology and nationality for a second. Do people feel more secure going about their daily business in this country than they did say 25-30 years ago? We have always had isolated incidents and attacks on the general public, but something does feel different at the moment.
There are myriad reasons and causes, as is usual. But I do think that we need to look at policing, law and order and matters of security much more closely to try and address this. That is, of course, not something that changes overnight.
I don't think that Islamic Terrorism has ever reached the levels of Irish Republican Terrorism. The most unnerved I felt was when litter bins were removed from railway stations in the 90s.
I think the instant online reaction does create some extra anxiety because of the uncertainty. In earlier decades, when you were used to waiting for tomorrow's papers, or the evening news bulletin, it would feel like you weren't waiting as long because the pertinent facts would be laid out on the second or third time the incident was reported. Whereas now you've checked various news websites and live blogs, etc, dozens of times.
Probably time to log off for a bit and do something on the real world. Brownies or Apple Crumble?
I'm not sure about that. How many people on the British mainland did the URA kill, vs how many have the Islamists killed? The big difference between the two is that the IRA wanted a specific and achievable outcome, whereas the Islamists simply want to kill all the non-Muslims, as well as all the wrong sort of Muslims.
PIRA terrorism did bother me more. I was once on the opposite side of Shaftesbury Avenue, when a bomb went off. Islamists have not achieved much here, for twenty years.
A very early vivid memory for me, when I was five and six years old, is the safety broadcasts on BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service, when we lived in Rheindahlen, British forces HQ in Germany)
They told us to use a mirror on a stick to check under the car for IRA bombs every morning. We didn't have a mirror on a stick, so I used to lie next to the car and look underneath for bombs before my Dad went to work
I had no idea what I was looking for, but it felt like an important job
Two years after we left the IRA blew up a 300lb car bomb outside the officers' mess on that base
I was going to 'like' that post but fear that may be misconstrued. I did like the post though.
I agree liking a post like that seems odd.
Liking a post can mean one of five things:
- I've seen it - I agree with it - I found it funny - I think the world is a better place because the events described in it happened - you have my deepest sympathies because of your [cancer, bereavement, financial loss, other personal disaster]
So it's a bit of a minefield when there's basically only one way to react to a post. Which is way facebook has seven standard ones and loads more emojis.
I am a Conservative member one of only about 7,000 in Scotland ! You could fit the whole party in Firhill with room to spare.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
Once the Tories get to a low enough level of polling, such as 5-6%, things like the triple-lock cease to matter as they've got so few votes to lose anyway they may as well do what's right.
Pledging to keep it, just to stay up at 17-18% with the votes of some long loyal pensioners, doesn't seem like a platform to build on for me.
At some point, the country needs to give a mandate to a government to bite bullets. That includes not only electing them, but also not screaming at them when they do.
The bit of conservatism that's about passing on a good inheritance was well set-up for that... but it does seem to have withered and died some time ago. Pampering pensioners, no matter the consequences, is a symptom of a wider malaise.
How many people on the British mainland did the URA (sic) kill.
I'm a bit averse to answer this question, as it implies that casualties in NI don't count. But the function of a statistician is to answer questions, so as follows.
Location Count Belfast East 128 Belfast North 577 Belfast South 213 Belfast West 623 Britain 125 County Antrim 209 County Armagh 477 County Derry 123 County Down 243 County Fermanagh 112 County Tyrone 341 Derry 227 Europe 18 Republic of Ireland 116 TOTAL 3532
So of of the 3532 deaths attributed by Sutton to the Troubles, 125 were on the island of Great Britain
how many were in England, Scotland,Wales
Dunno Malc, sorry
Don't remember any in Scotland. There were too many nutters here of the other persuasion that would ahve meant big trouble. Be interesting.
Another thought: while the very depressing debate in these circumstances tends to focus on immigration, perhaps what I feel most strongly is that there is a growing sense of unease around public safety. Let’s leave aside ideology and nationality for a second. Do people feel more secure going about their daily business in this country than they did say 25-30 years ago? We have always had isolated incidents and attacks on the general public, but something does feel different at the moment.
There are myriad reasons and causes, as is usual. But I do think that we need to look at policing, law and order and matters of security much more closely to try and address this. That is, of course, not something that changes overnight.
I don't think that Islamic Terrorism has ever reached the levels of Irish Republican Terrorism. The most unnerved I felt was when litter bins were removed from railway stations in the 90s.
I think the instant online reaction does create some extra anxiety because of the uncertainty. In earlier decades, when you were used to waiting for tomorrow's papers, or the evening news bulletin, it would feel like you weren't waiting as long because the pertinent facts would be laid out on the second or third time the incident was reported. Whereas now you've checked various news websites and live blogs, etc, dozens of times.
Probably time to log off for a bit and do something on the real world. Brownies or Apple Crumble?
I'm not sure about that. How many people on the British mainland did the URA kill, vs how many have the Islamists killed? The big difference between the two is that the IRA wanted a specific and achievable outcome, whereas the Islamists simply want to kill all the non-Muslims, as well as all the wrong sort of Muslims.
PIRA terrorism did bother me more. I was once on the opposite side of Shaftesbury Avenue, when a bomb went off. Islamists have not achieved much here, for twenty years.
A very early vivid memory for me, when I was five and six years old, is the safety broadcasts on BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service, when we lived in Rheindahlen, British forces HQ in Germany)
They told us to use a mirror on a stick to check under the car for IRA bombs every morning. We didn't have a mirror on a stick, so I used to lie next to the car and look underneath for bombs before my Dad went to work
I had no idea what I was looking for, but it felt like an important job
Two years after we left the IRA blew up a 300lb car bomb outside the officers' mess on that base
I was going to 'like' that post but fear that may be misconstrued. I did like the post though.
I agree liking a post like that seems odd.
Liking a post can mean one of five things:
- I've seen it - I agree with it - I found it funny - I think the world is a better place because the events described in it happened - you have my deepest sympathies because of your [cancer, bereavement, financial loss, other personal disaster]
So it's a bit of a minefield when there's basically only one way to react to a post. Which is way facebook has seven standard ones and loads more emojis.
I didn't know Facebook had different categories of likes, but then I hardly ever visit the site.
I am a Conservative member one of only about 7,000 in Scotland ! You could fit the whole party in Firhill with room to spare.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
There's a lot to agree with there, and I do think the Scottish Conservatives are probably the model the rest of the party needs to follow. The Annabel Goldie vibe.
The problem is that's inconsistent with what Badenoch has come out with today on violent crime. A key test for her and the Conservative leadership is to base their positions on something vaguely resembling evidence.
I'm not going to pretend I'm close to voting Conservative - but if they had a sensible leaders it would make me less likely to come out for Labour or some other left wing party.
Another thought: while the very depressing debate in these circumstances tends to focus on immigration, perhaps what I feel most strongly is that there is a growing sense of unease around public safety. Let’s leave aside ideology and nationality for a second. Do people feel more secure going about their daily business in this country than they did say 25-30 years ago? We have always had isolated incidents and attacks on the general public, but something does feel different at the moment.
There are myriad reasons and causes, as is usual. But I do think that we need to look at policing, law and order and matters of security much more closely to try and address this. That is, of course, not something that changes overnight.
I don't think that Islamic Terrorism has ever reached the levels of Irish Republican Terrorism. The most unnerved I felt was when litter bins were removed from railway stations in the 90s.
I think the instant online reaction does create some extra anxiety because of the uncertainty. In earlier decades, when you were used to waiting for tomorrow's papers, or the evening news bulletin, it would feel like you weren't waiting as long because the pertinent facts would be laid out on the second or third time the incident was reported. Whereas now you've checked various news websites and live blogs, etc, dozens of times.
Probably time to log off for a bit and do something on the real world. Brownies or Apple Crumble?
I'm not sure about that. How many people on the British mainland did the URA kill, vs how many have the Islamists killed? The big difference between the two is that the IRA wanted a specific and achievable outcome, whereas the Islamists simply want to kill all the non-Muslims, as well as all the wrong sort of Muslims.
PIRA terrorism did bother me more. I was once on the opposite side of Shaftesbury Avenue, when a bomb went off. Islamists have not achieved much here, for twenty years.
A very early vivid memory for me, when I was five and six years old, is the safety broadcasts on BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service, when we lived in Rheindahlen, British forces HQ in Germany)
They told us to use a mirror on a stick to check under the car for IRA bombs every morning. We didn't have a mirror on a stick, so I used to lie next to the car and look underneath for bombs before my Dad went to work
I had no idea what I was looking for, but it felt like an important job
Two years after we left the IRA blew up a 300lb car bomb outside the officers' mess on that base
I was going to 'like' that post but fear that may be misconstrued. I did like the post though.
I agree liking a post like that seems odd.
Liking a post can mean one of five things:
- I've seen it - I agree with it - I found it funny - I think the world is a better place because the events described in it happened - you have my deepest sympathies because of your [cancer, bereavement, financial loss, other personal disaster]
So it's a bit of a minefield when there's basically only one way to react to a post. Which is way facebook has seven standard ones and loads more emojis.
I like posts I disagree with but contain interesting or novel arguments - particularly if they help from a betting perspective. HYUFD is the best at these.
Plod say 2 British black males been arrested on suspicion of murder, but nothing to suggest this was a terrorist incident. They are a 32-year-old male black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
I despair of this ‘not terror related’ stuff. It’s a mass stabbing. If it’s not terror related what is it?
Whether it gets labelled terrorism or not, at some point they'll have to say whether this was an on-board incident that escalated or whether this was a premeditated attack.
The BBC aren't saying that... they say British Nationals....
One is "Black" and one is "Black of Caribbean descent".
I am a Conservative member one of only about 7,000 in Scotland ! You could fit the whole party in Firhill with room to spare.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
Who do you mean by "the London elite"? It feels like a bit of a catch-all phrase for 'people I don't really like'.
Surely, the Conservatives have always been the party of the elite, London or otherwise? (I accept they have had much broader appeal most of the time too.)
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
Last one down to ayrshire used to be like the wild west, not done it for many years though
Now absolutely clear not a gang fight and / or members of the public trying to get involved in an altercation....
"I met another young girl, who was about 18 or 19. She told me she was listening to music on the train when a man tried to stab her. She said someone pulled her out of the way."
"She looked absolutely petrified. She had left all her belongings including her phone on the train, the only thing she was carrying was a vape."
Plod say 2 British black males been arrested on suspicion of murder, but nothing to suggest this was a terrorist incident. They are a 32-year-old male black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
I despair of this ‘not terror related’ stuff. It’s a mass stabbing. If it’s not terror related what is it?
Whether it gets labelled terrorism or not, at some point they'll have to say whether this was an on-board incident that escalated or whether this was a premeditated attack.
Not to mention dining cars. With silver service. Happy memory of them in the 1960s, en route from Edinburgh to London behind a nice Deltic (Mum used to book lunch there to help break up the long journey for me, so she told me, and - I now suspect - give herself a treat.)
GNER were still running silver service dining cars on the London-Edinburgh route until 2007 when, despite an excellent service they lost the franchise. Not sure what happened after that.
@Benpointer Enjoying your blog Ben, keep up the good work and hopefully you are recovering well.
Why is it that despite so much activity, legislation to ban knives, so much investment in mental health, we’re seeing more violence on our streets. What is causing this? Lots of people will be speculating - I think we should wait until more facts emerge. But there’s clearly something going wrong in our society right now, which I believe all politicians of all parties need to have a conversation about.
I suspect nihilism from people with increasingly shit lives with nothing positive to look forward to. Something that politicians could try to do something about.
Let's get back to personal responsibility, not blaming other people for your problems.
Quite so. Let’s start with those exculpating nitwits blaming Trump on woke libs,
Plod say 2 British black males been arrested on suspicion of murder, but nothing to suggest this was a terrorist incident. They are a 32-year-old male black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
I despair of this ‘not terror related’ stuff. It’s a mass stabbing. If it’s not terror related what is it?
Whether it gets labelled terrorism or not, at some point they'll have to say whether this was an on-board incident that escalated or whether this was a premeditated attack.
Not to mention dining cars. With silver service. Happy memory of them in the 1960s, en route from Edinburgh to London behind a nice Deltic (Mum used to book lunch there to help break up the long journey for me, so she told me, and - I now suspect - give herself a treat.)
GNER were still running silver service dining cars on the London-Edinburgh route until 2007 when, despite an excellent service they lost the franchise. Not sure what happened after that.
@Benpointer Enjoying your blog Ben, keep up the good work and hopefully you are recovering well.
Thank you. Very frustrating being out of action, hopefully on the mend now though. Building seems to be progressing better without my constant guidance which is good, and annoying ;-)
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
Last one down to ayrshire used to be like the wild west, not done it for many years though
Last couple of tubes home on the Central Line could be a bit hairy of a Saturday night.
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
Last one down to ayrshire used to be like the wild west, not done it for many years though
Last couple of tubes home on the Central Line could be a bit hairy of a Saturday night.
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
Last one down to ayrshire used to be like the wild west, not done it for many years though
Last couple of tubes home on the Central Line could be a bit hairy of a Saturday night.
Don't blame me - I only commuted Monday to Friday!
Timing presumably coincidental on what is a day to bury bad news should one be so inclined. But one does get the impression some folk (speaking generally, not of Mr Healey) will be seriously disappointed there's not a big ceremony with ranks of matelots on parade on the flight deck of PoW and a Master-at-Arms with a huge pair of scissors ceremonially removing the epaulettes etc. Having their Royal ceremonial cake and eating it.
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
And quite a weird distinction.. one is British of Caribbean background, the other is pure black British
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
'I thought that was a basic' is code here for 'I have zero evidence to back my claim up'.
And I would enjoy an explanation as to how reducing water usage is going to result in less flooding.
Efforts to get everyone to take shorter showers etc., as well as being revolting, are absurdly unnecessary in a country with water so abundant that we are discussing flood mitigation strategies. It is a sign of how absurd and perverse the discourse on this has become that it is even raised.
If you don’t have the reservoirs to store the water for when you need it then you can have both flooding and water shortages follow quickly one after the other.
Surely this is obvious?
Yes, it is obvious, that's why I said it.
681mm of rainfall at my allotment last year vs 322 this, for what it's worth
Shame about the stabbing news because it’s otherwise a very pleasant autumn day out there. One of those late season golden afternoons that make me deliciously nostalgic. For what, I’m not sure. I think probably for similar autumn Sundays of my early adulthood, walking to the park, under the same Sunday flight path.
Time to get my “Autumn Sunday roast” Spotify playlist going. The naffest I've made.
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
And quite a weird distinction.. one is British of Caribbean background, the other is pure black British
That's the question on the census, so I guess the police are just following that: Black, Black British, Caribbean or African. I think the British bit in their statement is citizenship not ethnicity.
Could have been worse: "Black and White African" is an option too, twitter would have gone into meltdown.
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
Was it to counter misinformation on social media about their background and heritage?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
'I thought that was a basic' is code here for 'I have zero evidence to back my claim up'.
And I would enjoy an explanation as to how reducing water usage is going to result in less flooding.
Efforts to get everyone to take shorter showers etc., as well as being revolting, are absurdly unnecessary in a country with water so abundant that we are discussing flood mitigation strategies. It is a sign of how absurd and perverse the discourse on this has become that it is even raised.
If you don’t have the reservoirs to store the water for when you need it then you can have both flooding and water shortages follow quickly one after the other.
Surely this is obvious?
Yes, it is obvious, that's why I said it.
681mm of rainfall at my allotment last year vs 322 this, for what it's worth
Over 900mm already at my vineyard this year. One of its wettest years despite the drought in the rest of the South.
I am a Conservative member one of only about 7,000 in Scotland ! You could fit the whole party in Firhill with room to spare.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
I'd say it's not so much that the Conservatives are the only centrist party left in the country, as that's rather a vague term, it's that they're the only party that doesn't reflexively treat the private sector as a magic money tree and boast about it, and so contains tattered remnants of the economic literacy of the Thatcher/Major years. Even Sunak, who had a pandemic to pay for, was starting to grasp it by the end.
Also they were inspiring, right and sound on Ukraine under Boris.
So I'd say they're the best of a bunch of dismal options out there at the moment.
They are a 32-year-old black British male and 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent.
They have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
"Mental health" it is, then.
How much of this mental health stuff is down to too much waccy baccy? It is definitely linked to schizophrenia.
One person, probably. Two seems like unlikely. It could just as easily be some sort of gang fight / "road men" have attacked somebody and people have stepped in and all hell has broken loose.
Sounds plausible, I can just imagine being on a train when some ne'er do wells start hacking each other to bits with machetes and me jumping up and saying come on chaps play nice there.
That’s why I avoid the last train home on a Friday night.
Last one down to ayrshire used to be like the wild west, not done it for many years though
Last couple of tubes home on the Central Line could be a bit hairy of a Saturday night.
Why is it that despite so much activity, legislation to ban knives, so much investment in mental health, we’re seeing more violence on our streets. What is causing this? Lots of people will be speculating - I think we should wait until more facts emerge. But there’s clearly something going wrong in our society right now, which I believe all politicians of all parties need to have a conversation about.
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
Was it to counter misinformation on social media about their background and heritage?
If it was to counter a narrative that they were Islamists, I don't think it works, because Lee Rigby's killer were Islamists, despite being black and British. I suppose it stops people thinking they were asylum seekers, but still no real need to say they were black
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
'I thought that was a basic' is code here for 'I have zero evidence to back my claim up'.
And I would enjoy an explanation as to how reducing water usage is going to result in less flooding.
Efforts to get everyone to take shorter showers etc., as well as being revolting, are absurdly unnecessary in a country with water so abundant that we are discussing flood mitigation strategies. It is a sign of how absurd and perverse the discourse on this has become that it is even raised.
If you don’t have the reservoirs to store the water for when you need it then you can have both flooding and water shortages follow quickly one after the other.
Surely this is obvious?
Yes, it is obvious, that's why I said it.
681mm of rainfall at my allotment last year vs 322 this, for what it's worth
Over 900mm already at my vineyard this year. One of its wettest years despite the drought in the rest of the South.
The IRA killed around 110-130 people of the UK mainland between 1972-1997, depending on exactly what is counted. That includes assassinations and the big bomb attacks.
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
Whenever bad things happen, the correct response is not to do things that affect the great majority of people. But it's always much easier for governments to go down that route.
Airport security after 9/11 being the most obvious example of such from governments.
Yes. The wrong response to this incident would be to say no-one can take any type of knife on a train, no matter how small it is and no matter what material it's made of.
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
Was it to counter misinformation on social media about their background and heritage?
If it was to counter a narrative that they were Islamists, I don't think it works, because Lee Rigby's killer were Islamists, despite being black and British. I suppose it stops people thinking they were asylum seekers, but still no real need to say they were black
Twitter not as up to date as it usually is/can be wrt Huntingdon but if it is accurate that one of the attackers shouted "kill me" then that is interesting and relevant.
Of course it is absolutely vital to remind people that "mental health issues" and "terrorism related" are not only not mutually exclusive but often co-present in such incidents.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
'I thought that was a basic' is code here for 'I have zero evidence to back my claim up'.
And I would enjoy an explanation as to how reducing water usage is going to result in less flooding.
Efforts to get everyone to take shorter showers etc., as well as being revolting, are absurdly unnecessary in a country with water so abundant that we are discussing flood mitigation strategies. It is a sign of how absurd and perverse the discourse on this has become that it is even raised.
If you don’t have the reservoirs to store the water for when you need it then you can have both flooding and water shortages follow quickly one after the other.
Surely this is obvious?
Yes, it is obvious, that's why I said it.
681mm of rainfall at my allotment last year vs 322 this, for what it's worth
Over 900mm already at my vineyard this year. One of its wettest years despite the drought in the rest of the South.
469mm here in Dorset so far.
385mm in the Flatlands. About 100mm short - which given we had a wet winter is quite an achievement.
Evapotranspiration (grass) approximately 440mm, so a significant deficit.
The media are hushing it up for fear of a backlash.
Shades of Leon there: "There's a story about to come out that is so BIG it will turn change EVERYTHING!! I am not allowed to tell you what it is but just you wait and see."
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
It is not wrong to wonder why this violent thug was given asylum after one violent attack. Now up to 5, and not wrong to want him deported.
It is quite unbelievable. Anyone coming here should have to survive on their own , no benefits of any kind whatsoever and any crimes means instant deportation.
It's reassuring to have you back into the Conservative fold after all those years of dabbling with the politics of the socialist worker Salmond.
Twitter not as up to date as it usually is/can be wrt Huntingdon but if it is accurate that one of the attackers shouted "kill me" then that is interesting and relevant.
Of course it is absolutely vital to remind people that "mental health issues" and "terrorism related" are not only not mutually exclusive but often co-present in such incidents.
The extent to which extremists recruit fruit loops or fruit loops self recruit to extremist groups is an interesting one.
Certainly many recent attackers (and would be attackers) have been a picnic short of a picnic.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
Look, she's a young girl with rich and connected parents, it's vitally important that she's taken down a peg or two.
Ruddy sexism against a modern day Joan of Arc.
Jeanne and the Brits got on like a house on fire of if I remember correctly
Have to say I don't really get why it's necessary for the police to tell us then race of the attackers once they are in custody. It doesn't really make any difference. If they were still at large of course it would be vital to inform the public. But a "Black British national" doesn't mean anything anyway does it?
It does to this Government.
Going to be a huge sigh of relief from Downing Street. That they are domestic crazies? Okaaaaaaay.....
So...potential terrorist gets on at a tiny halt station. There's going to be a scanner there, huh? And somebody to make sure he goes through it?
Riiiiight.....
I see a slight problem with that plan.
I really hope we don't get this. One of the great joys of rail travel is swinging into the station on your bicycle, grabbing a coffee and plonking yourself down with 20 seconds to spare. As horrible as this incident is, I don't think that is worth giving up.
Seems like the small boat hookah kookai isn't the only issue. That rise in removals driven in no small part by Brazilians being paid to go home....
Hundreds of illegal migrants are secretly sneaking back to the UK just weeks after being given £3,000 in British taxpayers' cash as a bribe to return home, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The IRA killed around 110-130 people of the UK mainland between 1972-1997, depending on exactly what is counted. That includes assassinations and the big bomb attacks.
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
Whenever bad things happen, the correct response is not to do things that affect the great majority of people. But it's always much easier for governments to go down that route.
Airport security after 9/11 being the most obvious example of such from governments.
Yes. The wrong response to this incident would be to say no-one can take any type of knife on a train, no matter how small it is and no matter what material it's made of.
While it’s true that you always arm to fight the next war than the last one, the war in Ukraine has torn up much of the playbook when it comes to how a land war is fought in the 21st century.
Both sides have used millions, millions of small drones, not to mention the longer-range large one-way drones currently taking out O&G facilities across Russia.
One good thing it has shown, is that current Western kit is considerably better than Soviet kit, although the Chinese are still pushing the innovation so we need to make sire we don’t fall behind.
The single most important lesson for me is that, given a severely constrained budget, we need to stop wasting money on legacy kit, especially the flawed stuff. So truncate or terminate Ajax, and definitely terminate Challenger 3. An MBT is about the least urgent requirement for the UK, and Challenger 3 will be used by literally no one else in NATO. And use the money saved build the army some serious artillery (with a year's worth of ammunition rather than a week's) and drone capacity.
The choices for the navy and airforce are a lot less clear (though again, all of their kit is useless without a far larger stock of munitions). We need to make some choices, though, rather than trying to do a bit of everything, badly.
Yes the most important point is that we need ammunition. Lots and lots of ammunition. You can have all the artillery, missile launchers, and air defence systems in the world, but they’re useless if they have no ammo.
C3 tank probably makes little sense, when C2 is already better than anything an enemy can field. Going forward one common NATO design of tank hardware makes sense, that can be built anywhere with local electronics if required.
We need to make what works already and in quantity, and then look at how innovation can help, which is clearly cheap drones mass-produced when needed.
After the war, we can and should have the Ukranians help with knowing what worked and what didn’t. We can buy from them what they innovated and worked.
The problem is that the quality mentality.
Which means that if we could afford hundreds of something cheap, it must be better to spend the money on a few dozens.
For artillery - buy 500 RCH-155 or Archer. At level, you’d get the factory built in the U.K. - probably more than one. Order a hundred million shell *bodies* - again, you’d get factories built. Why shell bodies? Well, it takes time and a serious factory to make them. Unfilled, they are just a nicely machined piece of steel - they will last for a hundred years.
That little lot would upset any opposing army on the planet.
The main reason to go for quality over quantity is that it gives you a stronger military with a lower manpower requirement. In general this is a good objective - we're not Russia and we should seek to be minimising casualties as much as possible by using better kit.
Sure, you can take this process too far, but I'd want to be further over on the quality end of quality/quantity spectrum than any adversary.
Archer and RCH-155 are top of the line.
The problem is that just buying them wasn’t sexy. Without Unique British Requirements, it wouldn’t keep the managers managing. And without silly little bits* of work for British firms added on, the politicians would be unhappy.
So the original plan was less than a 100 of something custom. Most probably 50, after the usual disastrous over runs.
My way, we’d have the biggest manufacturing facility for SPGs in Europe. So the next generation would naturally tend to be built here. The whole thing, not just some seat covers.
With the money saved and spent on shell bodies, we’d have the industrial plant to be the biggest manufacturer of shells in Europe. So if anyone needed shells, they’d be calling us.
*in one project, they have the work for a handful of seat covers to a British firm. With a resultant price per seat….
Do you really need that many shells though, if you are delivering them by drone? Some 75-80% of Russian tank/IFV kills are by Ukrainian FPV drones now. Even if you need 5 drones each to finish off that number, that needs a tiny fraction of the shells previously used to blanket the batllefield.
Invest in drones and spotty kids in their bedroom who can take out a couple of MBT before they even get up. Cheap as chips.
Drones of that kind are a bit of dead end, between electronic warfare and point defence systems*, they won’t be making a dent in a prepared Western Army.
155 artillery has lasted so long, precisely because it is a balance between effective, cheap and very hard to stop.
Archer and RCH can automatically fire a pre-loaded mix of ammunition, in a few seconds, using a mix of trajectories so that the shells all arrive at the same moment. Since they need no guidance, they can operate in radio silence, and shoot-and-scoot. That is, drive off before the shells have landed on the target.
*There are point defence systems in service that can deal with incoming heavy supersonic ATGMs. They would be overkill for drones.
And the cost of those point defence systems when attacked by 1,000 cheap drones? However good the first 200 defences are, the next 800 are getting through. At least until the system comprises laser defence that have the power to fire almost without limit.
Specific anti drone defence systems are being constructed using 40mm grenade launchers or even automatic shotguns. The cost per round is far less than the cost of a drone.
Constructed by our MOD? They'll still end up costing £10,000 per grenade fired...
Twitter not as up to date as it usually is/can be wrt Huntingdon but if it is accurate that one of the attackers shouted "kill me" then that is interesting and relevant.
Of course it is absolutely vital to remind people that "mental health issues" and "terrorism related" are not only not mutually exclusive but often co-present in such incidents.
The extent to which extremists recruit fruit loops or fruit loops self recruit to extremist groups is an interesting one.
Certainly many recent attackers (and would be attackers) have been a picnic short of a picnic.
There's a very good book about the Mumbai marauding attack which describes this.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
Look, she's a young girl with rich and connected parents, it's vitally important that she's taken down a peg or two.
Ruddy sexism against a modern day Joan of Arc.
Jeanne and the Brits got on like a house on fire of if I remember correctly
I remember a Barry Cryer line in ISIHAC: "They got on like a mouse on fire...."
The IRA killed around 110-130 people of the UK mainland between 1972-1997, depending on exactly what is counted. That includes assassinations and the big bomb attacks.
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
Whenever bad things happen, the correct response is not to do things that affect the great majority of people. But it's always much easier for governments to go down that route.
Airport security after 9/11 being the most obvious example of such from governments.
Yes. The wrong response to this incident would be to say no-one can take any type of knife on a train, no matter how small it is and no matter what material it's made of.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, a union representing rail and transport workers, is calling for a security review after the knife attack in Huntingdon.
The union's general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust describes the attack as "appalling".
"Our immediate priority is for the welfare of the injured and all those traumatised by what has happened," she said.
Eslamdoust added: "Transport networks must be safe for everyone, both the travelling public and the staff who serve them.
"We call on the operator and government to act swiftly to review security, to support the affected workers, and to ensure nothing like this happens again.""
So...potential terrorist gets on at a tiny halt station. There's going to be a scanner there, huh? And somebody to make sure he goes through it?
Riiiiight.....
I see a slight problem with that plan.
I really hope we don't get this. One of the great joys of rail travel is swinging into the station on your bicycle, grabbing a coffee and plonking yourself down with 20 seconds to spare. As horrible as this incident is, I don't think that is worth giving up.
A muppet with a couple of sparklers stuck in his trainers changed world air travel, so..
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, a union representing rail and transport workers, is calling for a security review after the knife attack in Huntingdon.
The union's general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust describes the attack as "appalling".
"Our immediate priority is for the welfare of the injured and all those traumatised by what has happened," she said.
Eslamdoust added: "Transport networks must be safe for everyone, both the travelling public and the staff who serve them.
"We call on the operator and government to act swiftly to review security, to support the affected workers, and to ensure nothing like this happens again.""
So...potential terrorist gets on at a tiny halt station. There's going to be a scanner there, huh? And somebody to make sure he goes through it?
Riiiiight.....
I see a slight problem with that plan.
I really hope we don't get this. One of the great joys of rail travel is swinging into the station on your bicycle, grabbing a coffee and plonking yourself down with 20 seconds to spare. As horrible as this incident is, I don't think that is worth giving up.
A muppet with a couple of sparklers stuck in his trainers changed world air travel, so..
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, a union representing rail and transport workers, is calling for a security review after the knife attack in Huntingdon.
The union's general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust describes the attack as "appalling".
"Our immediate priority is for the welfare of the injured and all those traumatised by what has happened," she said.
Eslamdoust added: "Transport networks must be safe for everyone, both the travelling public and the staff who serve them.
"We call on the operator and government to act swiftly to review security, to support the affected workers, and to ensure nothing like this happens again.""
Comments
I think Islamist attacks may run very slightly ahead between 2005-2025, but it very, very much in the same ball park of 100-150 deaths over the 2 decades.
As I've said before, my Dad was in an incendiary device attack in Lewis's Manchester (as well as the Woolies fire) and we didn't tend to go to the city shopping as a result.
I've been vaguely near to things, going through the concert crowds to Manchester Victoria on the evening of the Arena bombing, on LNER albeit at the north end last week, but I'm not on the page of allowing that randomness to make me nervous, the possible authoritarian reactions and more systematic threat carried out by a remigrationist government feel like a much more menacing threat to this white man. But that does also behove the mainstream to take the immigration system overlaps and ensuring a fair but very firm system for who gets in, who stays in and who goes, all in a timely fashion, deadly seriously and deals with it systematically, piece by piece and without maguffinist bullshit.
Surely this is obvious?
On the World Service this morning the correspondent was saying to the host and his guests that there were over 50,000 knife crimes in England and Wales last year to which one of the guests, an American who was the NYT Spain correspondent, was aghast and said that he was from Sam a Francisco so this was just unfathomable for him.
The thing is, every stat I’ve ever seen shows that knife attacks and injuries/death are infinitely higher in the US per head of population and the Americans love throwing our “knife crime” issue at us if we bring up their guns problem. Not only do they have a seriously worse gun crime problem but a worse knife problem to boot.
So is our knife problem especially huge compared to peers? Are we including too many incidents under the same grouping or just right or not enough.
Is there a figure which is actually “natural”, as in, in any population it is inevitable that nutters, miscreants, crims use an weapon which is very easily available to harm, threaten, defend and frankly it doesn’t matter what rules short of banning knifes from life and raiding every home until they are all gone so we can never eradicate it and might get overly worked up about something that can’t be fixed?
https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/victims/gis/maps/gismaps-22.html
In case any user is wondering why there were no deaths in Wales or Scotland, this was because of a deliberate policy on behalf of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) not to engage in attacks in those two countries.
Not wishing to dismiss any deaths, but I jusat can't recall any at this distance.
I could only remember the Scottish United Services Museum bomb that went off in Edinburgh Castle during a Tattoo performance but that wasn't Irish apparently.
The former Scottish first minister ran up big debts while fighting to clear his name" (£)
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/alex-salmond-death-lawsuits-n7nqw7wr3
When you go for really narrow focus Bible literalism plus "God specifically intervening in my life now" type immediacy it can be difficult to avoid such conclusions without questioning your silo.
At the trivial end you might get "God saves me a parking space every time I go into Central London" type stuff (yes I have seen reports of it). At the more seriously loopy (imo) end you may get a demonology of "Satan's strongholds" and people "prayer-walking" around say red light areas. prisons or abortion clinics *, then moving on to "rebuking" and "exorcising" the "demons", and perhaps "prophesying against them". A very prominent writer called C Peter Wagner had some input into that, and then individuals and movements particularise it. He was one of the originators of the New Apostolic Reformation Movement, and explicitly the so-called "Seven Mountains Mandate".
The pattern tends to be that people either become (imo) more sane and integrated or more loopy and siloed, but they develop. CPW started off as a "Professor of Church Growth", and over 2 or 3 decades went into "spiritual warfare" aspects rather than the applied sociology aspects.
* It's important to note that there are other entirely sane versions of prayer walking, which would be more like a reflective walk around an entire area or parish, seeking to quietly note and identify "needs" that a church should address as part of their social or mission programme. That might be combined with a residents' survey. Such observation is a standard mission / social action tool. This would also be a tool to engage the church members in the local community because doing such a survey would also be self-education.
An example might be noticing an isolated housing area from where it is difficult to get to church due to there being no Sunday buses, so a lift rota is provided and a local house group is developed (or a safe footpath is campaigned for so that walking is easier).
Before jumping to conclusions.
I think that Kemi is the right person for the moment to lead the Tories. She is unlikely to be PM but then she leads a fringe party. We have already accepted this in Scotland the English Tories are slower to catch up.
The biggest mistake of the Tory party in the last few years was to get sucked into the views of the London elite and forget their core base. They are very slowly beginning to realise that. They also have to stop being an OAP party as that will lead to their extinction.
They have yet to rebuild any trust with the business community. I am waiting to see what they propose on say death duties on family businesses before I vote for them again. Note I am a member but have not voted Tory in the last 2 General Elections.
So where does my optimism come from. Well the Tories are the only centrist party left in the country. The Lib Dems have been moving left to attack Labour territory. Reform will be a patriotic national party run from the streets by white working class men. The council by elections show the Tories are 3rd above Labour and able to win a few core seats. I think they are close to the bottom now.
Kemi is hard to hate. She appears genuine and is not a natural leader but has some empathy and as a woman she is a bit softer than the macho guys of Starmer, Farage, Davey and Flynn.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/asylum-modern-slavery-act-shabana-mahmood-wcfxhjrlm
It was victim of slavery here, now victim of slavery at some point in the past abroad. How long until claims of slavery in a previous life?
Pledging to keep it, just to stay up at 17-18% with the votes of some long loyal pensioners, doesn't seem like a platform to build on for me.
Liking a post can mean one of five things:
- I've seen it
- I agree with it
- I found it funny
- I think the world is a better place because the events described in it happened
- you have my deepest sympathies because of your [cancer, bereavement, financial loss, other personal disaster]
So it's a bit of a minefield when there's basically only one way to react to a post. Which is way facebook has seven standard ones and loads more emojis.
The bit of conservatism that's about passing on a good inheritance was well set-up for that... but it does seem to have withered and died some time ago. Pampering pensioners, no matter the consequences, is a symptom of a wider malaise.
Be interesting.
The problem is that's inconsistent with what Badenoch has come out with today on violent crime. A key test for her and the Conservative leadership is to base their positions on something vaguely resembling evidence.
I'm not going to pretend I'm close to voting Conservative - but if they had a sensible leaders it would make me less likely to come out for Labour or some other left wing party.
Surely, the Conservatives have always been the party of the elite, London or otherwise? (I accept they have had much broader appeal most of the time too.)
"I met another young girl, who was about 18 or 19. She told me she was listening to music on the train when a man tried to stab her. She said someone pulled her out of the way."
"She looked absolutely petrified. She had left all her belongings including her phone on the train, the only thing she was carrying was a vape."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm2zvjx1z14t
Let’s start with those exculpating nitwits blaming Trump on woke libs,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/live/cy85leer5xet
https://www.thetimes.com/article/14981671-a178-4593-ad2c-d61da0412e1b
Has Matthew Syed and Malmesbury ever been seen in the same room together?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/02/andrew-to-be-stripped-of-naval-title-says-uk-defence-secretary
Timing presumably coincidental on what is a day to bury bad news should one be so inclined. But one does get the impression some folk (speaking generally, not of Mr Healey) will be seriously disappointed there's not a big ceremony with ranks of matelots on parade on the flight deck of PoW and a Master-at-Arms with a huge pair of scissors ceremonially removing the epaulettes etc. Having their Royal ceremonial cake and eating it.
The media are hushing it up for fear of a backlash.
Time to get my “Autumn Sunday roast” Spotify playlist going. The naffest I've made.
Could have been worse: "Black and White African" is an option too, twitter would have gone into meltdown.
Also they were inspiring, right and sound on Ukraine under Boris.
So I'd say they're the best of a bunch of dismal options out there at the moment.
What I suspect goes through the public's mind is an understandable search for motive.
Of course it is absolutely vital to remind people that "mental health issues" and "terrorism related" are not only not mutually exclusive but often co-present in such incidents.
Evapotranspiration (grass) approximately 440mm, so a significant deficit.
(Still waiting for that one.)
Healey Doesn’t Rule Out Airport Security-Style Scanners at Train Stations
https://order-order.com/2025/11/02/healey-doesnt-rule-out-airport-security-style-scanners-at-train-stations"
https://x.com/GuidoFawkes/status/1984935437534666945
Certainly many recent attackers (and would be attackers) have been a picnic short of a picnic.
Riiiiight.....
I see a slight problem with that plan.
I'm not ruling out winning the lottery btw.
Chancellor plans sweeping changes to controversial Motability scheme considered by many to be “unfair” to the taxpayer" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/11/02/rachel-reeves-to-ban-luxury-cars-for-benefit-claimants
Going to be a huge sigh of relief from Downing Street. That they are domestic crazies? Okaaaaaaay.....
Hundreds of illegal migrants are secretly sneaking back to the UK just weeks after being given £3,000 in British taxpayers' cash as a bribe to return home, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15249239/Illegal-migrants-bribes-return-home-boast-easy.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/live/cy85leer5xet#player
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, a union representing rail and transport workers, is calling for a security review after the knife attack in Huntingdon.
The union's general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust describes the attack as "appalling".
"Our immediate priority is for the welfare of the injured and all those traumatised by what has happened," she said.
Eslamdoust added: "Transport networks must be safe for everyone, both the travelling public and the staff who serve them.
"We call on the operator and government to act swiftly to review security, to support the affected workers, and to ensure nothing like this happens again.""
https://news.sky.com/story/train-stabbing-latest-two-arrested-after-multiple-people-stabbed-13462248
See how quickly they roll back…
The operators have been wanting this for years.